Very Good Security raises $35M in Series B in ‘zero data’ push

Data security startup Very Good Security, has raised $35 million in its latest round of funding.

Its Series B, announced Thursday, was led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz — which led its $8.5 million Series A round — and Vertex Ventures US.

Very Good Security’s offering is simple. Instead of other businesses and startups holding onto their own collected user data, Very Good Security stores it in its secured vault, and gives its business customers the tools to access, edit, and process it without any of the liability.

The company’s software-as-a-service offering replaces sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or medical information for example, with an aliased version. The data can used just like ordinary data but it’s unreadable to humans, rendering it useless to hackers in the event of a data breach or theft.

Businesses who sign up to the data security offering can say they’re “zero data,” a term Very Good Security uses to describe companies that don’t store their own data. The company says by storing data in its vaults and not their own makes it more difficult for attackers to steal user data, while relieving companies of the burden of having to maintain a secure data environment themselves.

It makes sense, given how startups especially are notoriously unfocused on security.

Mahmoud Abdelkader, co-founder and chief executive of Very Good Security, said his company helps other businesses and startups launch and grow while “offloading the risk that comes with data custodianship.”

The company said it will use the $35 million round to support its “rapid” growth as its customer base increases. To date, the company has enlisted Brex and Deliveroo as customers, indicating considerable trust in the platform.