Cybersecurity and compliance startup Securiti.ai emerges from stealth with $31 million
Cybercrime never sleeps. Juniper Research pegs the number of digital records that will be stolen in 2023 at 33 billion, compared with the 12 billion stolen in 2018. As recently as 2017, the U.S. outranked all other countries in the volume of ransomware attacks, according to Symantec. And analysts elsewhere estimate that the cybercrime economy has grown to $1.5 trillion in annual profits and that damages will reach $6 trillion by 2021.
The costly threat of compromise has given rise to a market that’s projected to be worth $300 billion by 2024. Hundreds of startups already occupy the segment, but the competition isn’t deterring San Jose, California-based Securiti.ai, a developer building a platform designed to automate cybersecurity and compliance processes. It today emerged from stealth with $31 million in funding contributed mostly by Mayfield and its managing director Navin Chaddha, with participation from General Catalyst and its managing director Steve Herrod.
“[There are] a dozen state-level privacy regulations in the works, and we look forward to scaling our team and expanding our product capabilities to ensure businesses stay prepared as new regulations go into effect,” said president and CEO Rehan Jalil, who founded Securiti.ai in 2018 with a team hailing from Symantec, Blue Coat, Elastica, and Cisco.
Jalil previously headed Symantec’s cloud security division after his company Blue Coat was acquired for $4.7 billion following a merger with his previous startup, Elastica. During his tenure, it became Symantec’s fastest-growing team, with triple-digit growth over seven quarters.
It’s there where the idea for Privaci, Securiti.ai’s debut product, struck. Jalil describes it as a “PrivacyOps” solution that combines best practices with cross-functional collaboration, automation, and orchestration. “We’re on a mission to help enterprises prepare for the privacy Armageddon that awaits them,” he said.
To this end, Privaci features a number of configurable modules aimed at operationalizing data management and compliance. A personal data owner identifier taps AI to discover personal info (and its owners) from “hundreds” of structured and unstructured sources, while a data subject request automator and portal help fulfill and collect requests by compiling systems and data-containing objects into a report for review and approval.
Those components join third-party and first-party privacy assessment models that serve as cross-organizational systems of record. A complimentary third-party privacy module provides independent ratings on enterprises for privacy risk based on publicly available information about their data collection and handling practices, and a consent lifecycle manager records consent from various points within an organization and centralizes the files in a single unified, searchable place.
It’s a lot to keep straight, but fortunately, there’s a robotic assistant dubbed Auti to walk users through the ins and outs. Auti can parse questions posed about various aspects of an organization’s privacy compliance in plain language, in addition to those about sensitive data, personal information risks, and more. Moreover, it’s able to assist in tasks like DSR fulfillment, and it works in conjunction with a dashboard for multi-channel team collaboration designed to prevent breaches resulting from shared sensitive data.
The goal, said Mayfield’s Chaddha, is to ensure clients remain compliant with new privacy laws and regulations globally. Spurred on by legislation like California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will soon require enterprises handling personal data of California residents to comply with a number of data requirements or face a $7,500 fine for each violation, the privacy management software market is estimated to reach $3.29 billion by 2025 — two years before the data protection market hits an anticipated $120 billion.
“Rehan and Securiti.ai team of cybersecurity and data protection experts have built an elegant system that uses AI and automation to help consumer companies in verticals like retail, financial services, insurance, health care, and web services,” added Chaddha. “[It helps them to] quickly achieve privacy compliance and manage data across departments that can lead to massive penalties and fines.”
“Through our decade-long partnership over his two successful companies, I have realized that Rehan is the definition of a serial entrepreneur — a big thinker and successful culture builder with an ability to see around corners and walk through walls,” added Chaddha. “We are honored to partner on his team’s newest venture, Securiti.ai. Their first product suite, Privaci, is targeting one of the biggest problems facing society today — how businesses can build trust equity with people, by allowing them to own and guide the use of their personal data. By leveraging the power of AI, and building a delightful product, I’m confident that Privaci will become the gold standard for PrivacyOps, a movement that will become mainstream in enterprises going forward.”
Source: VentureBeat
