Privacy-focused API platform Skyflow has raised $17.5 million in a series A round of funding led by Canvas Ventures.
Founded out of Palo Alto, California in 2019, Skyflow has created what it calls a cloud-native “data privacy vault” that enables third-celebration developers to conveniently develop applications and workflows without the need of possessing to be concerned about information privacy or compliance. “It allows companies to securely store, use, and process sensitive data,” CEO Anshu Sharma told VentureBeat.
Skyflow exists at the intersection of two distinct but notable technologies trends: information privacy and application programming interfaces (APIs). The thorny situation of information privacy is hardly ever out of the headlines, thanks to a steady stream of higher-profile breaches. And with a expanding quantity of privacy regulations in force, such as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California, companies are beneath growing stress to not only comply with regulations but also demonstrate that they’re treating customers’ individual facts with kid gloves.
The rise of the API economy was currently properly underway prior to the pandemic, as providers have been transitioning their software program from tightly woven, monolithic entities to applications constructed upon microservices. These smaller sized, function-primarily based elements connect with each other by means of APIs, which are simpler to develop and preserve. As extra providers transition to the cloud to bolster their digital operations in 2020 and beyond, demand for APIs will continue to develop, and investors have taken note. In the previous seven months alone, API improvement platform Postman raised $150 million at a $2 billion valuation, API marketplace RapidAPI secured $25 million, and well being information-sharing platform Human API locked down $20 million in funding.
Privacy palaver
But rushing to the cloud opens a Pandora’s box of privacy troubles, which is exactly where Skyflow aims to enable. Each business and sector has its personal exclusive mixture of consumer information to safe — be that payment facts, healthcare information, or social safety numbers — and Skyflow provides particular vaults for particular use circumstances.
Companies are increasingly tackling the information privacy difficulty from several angles. This incorporates places such as compliance and PII (personally identifiable facts) information search and discovery, with the likes of OneTrust, BigID, Collibra, and Transcend all raising sizable investments more than the previous year.
Skyflow is seeking beyond compliance to get to the root of the privacy difficulty, targeting chief technologies officers (CTOs) rather than chief facts safety officers (CISO).
“Despite billions of dollars in security and compliance spend, customer data keeps getting stolen,” Sharma stated. “It’s as if the billions of dollars are being spent on security and compliance tools that don’t really solve the problem. The reason may be that they are trying to solve for blame rather than attack the heart of the problem. Skyflow is directed at the CTO who wants to build customer data privacy right into their data architecture.”
Be like Apple
Similar to the way Twilio and Stripe specialize in core competencies to maintain shoppers from possessing to develop cloud communications or payments experience and infrastructure, Skyflow sells privacy experience and infrastructure. It has created what it calls a “proprietary polymorphic encryption engine” that leverages encryption schemes for distinct information forms, such as telephone numbers, social safety numbers, and e mail addresses, enabling companies to run analytics and harness information that is by no means decrypted. Zero trust architecture is the name of the game right here.
“Skyflow asked a simple question: What do leading companies like Apple, Netflix, Goldman Sachs, and others do to protect sensitive data? It turns out they store, manage, and govern all sensitive data in a logically centralized vault,” Sharma explained. “It takes a specialized army of engineers to build something like this. You need experts in encryption, databases, security, tokenization, key management, recovery, and so much more.”
Sharma is a former Salesforce solution management VP who became an investor prior to cofounding Skyflow in mid-2019. He stated his business has amassed a group of extra than 35 engineers from providers like Salesforce, Google, and PayPal. He also claimed that considering that the product’s launch in July, Skyflow has observed “revenue grow to millions.”
Skyflow raised $7.5 million in a seed round of funding announced in May. With a further $17.5 million round, which integrated current investor Foundation Capital, the business plans to expand vertical-particular niches for well being, finance, and customer-focused providers and double its headcount across engineering, operations, sales, and advertising and marketing to extra than 80.