Many companies introduce privacy policies from time to time. For example, WebKit introduced a new privacy policy in August. However, the current data privacy model isn’t perfect, because there have been many breaches in the past. Moreover, there are many regulations in place so that companies behave better. Now, a startup is making a data protection system for developers in the form of an API. The name of the startup is Evervault and it aims to put data protection in the apps from the start.
To facilitate its business, the company has announced that it has raised $3.2 million in a new funding round. Sequoia is leading the current round. However, the funding round also includes investors, like SV Angel, Frontline, Perkins and other anonymous backers.
The ultimate aim of the startup Evervault is to incorporate its services into every software that uses the personally identifiable information. This will help the developers make encryptions to handle all the information. Moreover, the founder of the company, Shane Curran states, “I think that once data is ingested, it would be encrypted. There can be an argument about privacy on different levels. However, if someone breaches the app, your data will remain safe.” The list of investors is quite impressive because Evervault hasn’t released its product yet.
Curran, the CEO of the company, gave an interview in which he said that they have built the API but they are working on how to run it efficiently on a large scale. Thus, the company will use the current funding to help with this issue and recruit more team members.
Evervault’s product is notable because it challenges the way companies approach data privacy. The 19-year old founder of Evervault said in a statement, “We think that there should be data protection in the app from the first day. Initially, I thought of how to tackle the issue of data privacy from the side of the developer. However, after doing some research, it became more and more interesting to me.”
“Crypto anarchists” was the main target of the early built “data-cages,” however, that concept has evolved. This has allowed making solutions so that companies remain online, but in such a way that their data remains private and protected. “There should be a greater reason than simply that other companies shouldn’t touch the data,” he said. The main aim of Evervault is to provide a secure service in such a way that it doesn’t affect the user’s experience of the app.
This completely new way of handling data protection is the major reason why big investors invested in the company. Mamoon Hamid, the partner at Kleiner Perkins said, “Data is precious and Evervault wants to ensure complete data privacy. Their developer-first approach makes privacy a part of development, instead of a later stage. We are excited to work with the company to help build new data privacy structures.”
Although this model is completely new in this space, it is the same model when voice interface apps use NLP from Amazon, rather than making the function in-house.
Curran first came up with the idea of Evervault when he was 17. It became the basis of his first position in an annual technology exhibition in Ireland. This same competition made Patrick Collison, the co-founder of Stripe famous. He won the first prize back in 2005 when he was still a student.
After winning the competition in 2017, Curran remained with the original concept. He went to Silicon Valley and started meeting with tier-one VCs and angels. They encouraged him to turn this idea into a business. Moreover, they also gave him money to do it.
Stephanie Zhan, the partner at Sequoia, said in a statement, “Shane has a combination of thoughtfulness and a big vision. We are quite happy to work with Evervault to solve the massive problem of data breaches.”
This shows that, although the company still has to launch the untested product, the investors are happy with Curran.
