Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital offering hands-on support and expertise to startups on their early-stage journey.  It was founded in 2018 and is based in Menlo Park, California.

Unusual Ventures

Menlo Ventures provides capital for multi-stage consumer, enterprise, and life sciences technology companies. Since 1976, the firm’s market-driven analysis has led to the identification of opportunities and successful investments in innovative markets. Notable areas of investment include Marketplaces (Uber, Rover.com, Poshmark); Consumer Services (Tumblr, Betterment, Roku, Siri); Dev/Ops (Harness, Edge Delta, Fire hydrant); SaaS (Carta, ScoutRFP, Qualia, Benchling, Everlaw); Fintech (Betterment, Bluevine, Chime); Cybersecurity (Cavium, IronPort, BitSight, Abnormal, StackRox); and Life Sciences Technology (Synthego, Cofactor Genomics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, 3T Biosciences). Menlo’s portfolio includes more than 70 public companies, and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, with $5 billion under management. The firm is currently investing in Menlo Ventures XV, a $500 million early-stage fund, as well as its $500 million Inflection Fund, which targets early-growth investments.

Menlo Ventures

Relyance AI

Building the trust and governance infrastructure for the Internet.

<div><p>Relyance AI offers a platform that connects to enterprise code repositories, infrastructure tools, and vendor APIs to map data flows and privacy compliance risks before an application goes into production. The platform also enables automatic record-keeping for data processing to enhance compliance with privacy regulations. Relyance launched the beta version of its platform in February 2021, with sales having commenced a month after. The company’s customer base included companies such as Dialpad, Patreon, Samsara, and True, and as of September 2021, the company employed 32 staff.</p></div>

New data privacy regulations have opened up space for a new wave of compliance-focused startups.

Digital Privacy Tools

<div>
  <p>
    Relyance AI offers a platform that connects to enterprise code repositories, infrastructure tools, and vendor APIs to map data flows and privacy compliance risks before an application goes into production. The platform also enables automatic record-keeping for data processing to enhance compliance with privacy regulations. Relyance launched the beta version of its platform in February 2021, with sales having commenced a month after. The company’s customer base included companies such as Dialpad, Patreon, Samsara, and True, and as of September 2021, the company employed 32 staff.
  </p>
  <p>
    In September 2021, the company emerged from stealth with a Series A fundraise of USD 25 million, led by Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures. The company expects to use the funding to grow its engineering and sales teams and fast-track its go-to-market. Relyance AI aims to triple its headcount in the 12-18 months following the funding round.
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    OneTrust provides compliance solutions that leverage AI tools and automation across all areas of privacy compliance. OneTrust Athena, the company&rsquo;s AI-powered solution, provides automation in the areas of data discovery, data subject rights management, consent management (with a user-facing preference center for greater control), data protection impact assessments, third-party risk management, incident response reporting, and monitoring. The company also provides regulatory research software that companies can use to train staff and even benchmark their own privacy programs. The company&rsquo;s Government Records Request Automation solution helps government organizations intake requests, automate data discovery and redaction, and provide a secure two-way communication portal that demonstrates compliance with FOIA, PRR, and the Privacy Act.
  </p>
  <p>
    OneTrust has strengthened its position in the digital privacy space through several acquisitions in recent years. In March 2021, OneTrust acquired DocuVision, an AI-powered data redaction platform to bolster its data subject rights capabilities through automatic redaction of non-relevant sensitive information. During the same month, OneTrust acquired Convercent to enhance its platform through advanced ethics and compliance capabilities, and helpline and disclosure management. OneTrust acquired the security assurance and certification platform Tugboat Logic in September 2021, to automate its InfoSec assurance and certification processes. Other notable acquisitions include Privacy Core e-learning, DataGuidance, and Integris Software.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2023, OneTrust announced the 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16852">
      <u>addition of certification automation</u>
    </a>
     to the OneTrust GRC and Security Assurance Cloud. This solution which combines automation, pre-built policies and controls spanning 29 industry frameworks, over 100 integrations, compliance content, and expert guidance enables customers to simplify and streamline compliance tasks according to OneTrust.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Key customers and partnerships</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    OneTrust entered a partnership with Dow Jones Risk and Compliance in April 2023, to incorporate risk and compliance data into its third-party due diligence solution.&nbsp;&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    The company employed 3,000 people, served more than 12,000 customers (including 75% of the Fortune Global 500 companies), and its solutions are backed by 200 patents, as of January 2022. In June 2022, OneTrust 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11018">
      <u>laid off 950 employees</u>
    </a>
     (~25% of its global workforce) across its departments in Atlanta (US), Bengaluru (India), and London (UK), due to worsening global financial crisis and to balance between growth and profitability.
  </p>
  <p>
    OneTrust&rsquo;s 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20390">
      <u>most recent funding</u>
    </a>
     was in July 2023, where it raised USD 150 million in a round led by Insight Partners at a valuation of USD 4.5 billion. The company expects to use the combined funding to scale its platform to meet increasing demand.&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    This funding was raised at a lower valuation, down from the USD 5.1 billion OneTrust recorded during its December 2020 Series C round (USD 300 million), however the company reports it has doubled ARR to USD 400 million, grown customer numbers from 7,500 to over 14,000, and increased headcount from 1,500 to over 2,000 over the same period.
  </p>
</div>


OneTrust

<div>
  <p>
    Privitar provides a platform that enables companies to leverage personal data in their databases for analysis without compromising the end user&rsquo;s safety and privacy. The company&rsquo;s solutions handle and process data compliant with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company&rsquo;s platform provides de-identification solutions to enable the use of personal data while maintaining data utility. Use cases include business intelligence, insights, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) analysis, etc. The platform also includes features to manage secure data sharing and invisible data watermarks to track data movement throughout the organization.
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2022, Privitar 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11586?industryIds=34">
      <u>acquired</u>
    </a>
     the UK-based regulatory intelligence platform Kormoon to use the latter&rsquo;s repository of data privacy rules across 46 jurisdictions and automate policies in its own data provisioning platform. The company deemed this repository as a &ldquo;strategic asset&rdquo;&mdash;something that would take it years to build on its own. Kormoon provides a regulatory intelligence platform that analyzes the data usage behavior of companies to determine and automate necessary actions to achieve compliance with privacy regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA. Privitar expects to launch Kormoon&rsquo;s regulatory intelligence to users of Privitar by the end of 2022, although it&rsquo;s unclear whether Kormoon&rsquo;s offerings will continue to be sold as a separate product in the long term.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2023, enterprise data management firm Informatica announced 
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19444">
      <u>it was in talks to acquire</u>
    </a>
     Privitar.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of November 2020, Privitar employed over 200 staff and has offices in the UK, the US, Singapore, and Poland.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Key customers and partnerships</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    Privitar expanded the relationship it had with HSBC through its Series C fundraise, as HSBC was the first customer for Privitar in 2016. In addition to HSBC, Privitar also has other customer-turned-investors such as Citi.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    Privitar&rsquo;s most recent funding round was in June 2020, where it raised USD 7 million as a Series C investment led by HSBC Venture Capital Coverage Group. With USD 80 million raised in April 2020, its total Series C funding now amounts to USD 87 million. The company intended to use the funding to accelerate product development, hire additional staff, and focus on international expansion.
  </p>
</div>


Privitar

<div>
  <p>
    CENTRL provides automated risk management and privacy management solutions. Through its Privacy360 platform, the company provides solutions to identify compliance gaps, automate data discovery, manage data subject rights requests, consent management (with a user-facing preference center), carry out impact assessments, third-party risk management, monitoring, and reporting.
  </p>
</div>


CENTRL

<div>
  <p>
    HighSide provides a secure communications platform for organizations, enterprise archiving solutions, data discovery, and supervision tools in compliance with GDPR, CCPA, etc. In 2019, the company announced the acquisition of Hotshot Technologies, a secure team messaging platform.
  </p>
</div>


HighSide

<div>
  <p>
    SecuPI provides a patented platform enabling organizations to achieve compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The platform achieves this by providing multiple features to protect data such as pseudonymization, consent controls, audit logs, streamlining breach notifications, etc. SecuPI’s platform is deployed in organizations in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, and health industries.
  </p>
</div>


SecuPi

Uses AI/ML to automate workflows such as data discovery and data classification

Uses generative AI to provide conversational recommendations to users to remain compliant with privacy regulations

Solutions in this industry hub are offered under a B2B SaaS model

Tools to provide compliance with privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, and carry out tasks such as data discovery, data governance, consent management, Data Subject Rights (DSR) management, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) and managing incident response as mandated by these privacy regulations.

Relyance AI

Digital Privacy Tools

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Recent Updates

Relyance AI raises USD 25 million in Series A funding

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