Proton

Proton provides to use of encrypted email, calendar, file storage, and VPN built on the principle of data and rules. They specialize in encrypted email services. Their private email service uses open source, audited encryption, and zero-access encryption to secure communications.

Based in Switzerland, ProtonMail offers privacy-focused productivity tools such as end-to-end encrypted email services and encrypted calendars. In November 2020, the company announced early access to ProtonDrive, an encrypted storage service. The company uses a zero-access encryption model, under which the data is encrypted such that even ProtonMail cannot access it. The company also offers a virtual private network (VPN) under the “ProtonVPN” brand, enabling consumers to cloak their internet traffic. The company claims that it does not track its VPN users.

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

Digital Privacy Tools

Proton is a Swiss technology company that provides end-to-end encrypted communication services. Its core offering is Proton Mail, a secure email service utilizing PGP encryption standards to protect email content and user data. Proton Mail employs a combination of end-to-end and zero-access encryption, ensuring that even Proton itself cannot access user emails. All data is encrypted before leaving the user's device and stored encrypted on Swiss servers.

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Based in Switzerland, ProtonMail offers privacy-focused productivity tools such as end-to-end encrypted email services and encrypted calendars. In November 2020, the company announced early access to ProtonDrive, an encrypted storage service. The company uses a zero-access encryption model, under which the data is encrypted such that even ProtonMail cannot access it. The company also offers a virtual private network (VPN) under the “ProtonVPN” brand, enabling consumers to cloak their internet traffic. The company claims that it does not track its VPN users.ProtonMail’s offerings are also available to enterprise customers. The privacy features of the company’s products help businesses comply with privacy regulations, such as GDPR, in their communications. In May 2021, the company announced reaching a milestone, having exceeded 50 million users globally across all its product lines.The company’s last funding round was in 2019, where it obtained a grant of EUR 2 million (approximately USD 2.2 million) from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program.

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 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.
 
 
 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.
 
 
 In March 2023, OneTrust announced the 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16852">
 addition of certification automation
 </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.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 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;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 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">
 laid off 950 employees
 </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.
 
 
 OneTrust&rsquo;s 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20390">
 most recent funding
 </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;
 
 
 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.
 
</div>

OneTrust

<div>
 
 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.
 
 
 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.
 
 
 In July 2022, Privitar 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11586?industryIds=34">
 acquired
 </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.
 
 
 In June 2023, enterprise data management firm Informatica announced 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19444">
 it was in talks to acquire
 </a>
 Privitar.
 
 
 As of November 2020, Privitar employed over 200 staff and has offices in the UK, the US, Singapore, and Poland.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 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.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 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.
 
</div>

Privitar

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.

CENTRL

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.

HighSide

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.

SecuPi

Solutions to prevent the tracking and collection of the personal data of end-users.

Encrypted communications and data exchanges for internal and external collaboration around sensitive data.

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.

Synthetic data generation, data de-identification and anonymization, and other solutions for managing sensitive data.

Storage infrastructure for holding data in compliance with regulations such as GDPR or data residency requirements.

Central management of data access and data privacy and security policies.

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

Proton is a Swiss technology company that provides end-to-end encrypted communication services. Its core offering is Proton Mail, a secure email service utilizing PGP encryption standards to protect email content and user data. Proton Mail employs a combination of end-to-end and zero-access encryption, ensuring that even Proton itself cannot access user emails. All data is encrypted before leaving the user's device and stored encrypted on Swiss servers.
In addition to secure email, Proton offers several complementary encrypted services - ProtonVPN (a virtual private network), Proton Calendar (an encrypted calendar), Proton Drive (secure cloud storage), and Proton Pass (an encrypted password manager). These form an ecosystem of privacy-focused tools for secure digital communication and data management.
Beyond email and calendaring, key Proton Mail features include self-destructing emails, address verification, full PGP support, easy email import from other providers, and apps for Android and iOS. In January 2024, Proton introduced Tracking Links Protection to remove tracking pixels from email links.
Proton does not provide revenue figures, but highlights from October 2021 showed it had over 70 million users across its services. It does not offer a permanently free tier, instead using a freemium model where paid subscriptions unlock more storage and advanced features.

Abnormal Security is a cloud-based email security platform that leverages AI and behavioral data science to detect and block sophisticated email attacks that evade traditional email gateways. The company's core offering is an inbound email security solution that protects against business email compromise, phishing, malware, ransomware, social engineering, and other advanced threats.
Abnormal's platform establishes a baseline of normal behavior for each employee, vendor, and application within an organization's email environment. By understanding "known good" activity patterns, the AI can precisely identify anomalies and remediate malicious emails in real-time before they reach inboxes. This behavioral analysis approach provides more effective threat detection compared to traditional email security focused on indicators of compromise.
The platform integrates directly with cloud email providers like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace via an API, enabling rapid deployment without the need for a secure email gateway. Beyond inbound email protection, Abnormal also offers account takeover protection and SOC automation capabilities.
Abnormal expanded its platform in April 2023 to provide security monitoring and threat detection for collaboration apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. By ingesting identity signals from these additional data sources, the AI models can better understand cross-channel behavior and identify lateral movement by attackers across an enterprise's cloud environment.
Key customers and partnerships
Abnormal Security works with organizations across industries including government, finance, energy, manufacturing, technology, and consulting. Notable customers include PagerDuty, UserTesting, and Vungle, amongst others.
In January 2022, Abnormal announced a partnership with Microsoft to enhance native protection capabilities within Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

Abnormal Security

Menlo Security provides cloud-based security solutions centered around its patented Isolation Core technology. This technology creates an "air gap" between users and the internet, isolating the browsing process in the cloud to protect against web-based threats like phishing, drive-by exploits, and zero-day attacks. The company's Cloud Security Platform leverages this Isolation Core to enable secure internet access and browsing without compromising user experience.
Menlo Security's solutions aim to eliminate malware infections, including ransomware, by moving the fetch and execute functions of web browsing away from users' devices and networks. Only safe, non-executable content is rendered on users' devices, providing a seamless browsing experience while mitigating risks. The platform is designed to help organizations embrace cloud transformations securely without sacrificing data visibility, control, or user experience.
In March 2019, Menlo Security partnered with By Light to deliver a cloud-based internet isolation (CBII) solution for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), protecting over 3.5 million users worldwide across the US Department of Defense and its branches. This solution leverages Menlo's Cloud Platform and Isolation Core to secure internet access for defense officials deployed globally.
In January 2023, Menlo Security's Cloud Security Platform powered by its Isolation Core received Authorization to Operate (ATO) at the moderate level under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The company also announced the detection of "Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats" (HEAT) that bypass traditional security defenses, highlighting the need for its Zero Trust approach.
Additionally, Menlo Security acquired an undisclosed company in February 2023, expanding its capabilities to address the evolving threat landscape.

Menlo Security

<div>
 
 Darktrace is a global cybersecurity company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and respond to cyber threats in real-time. Founded in 2013 in Cambridge, UK, Darktrace has developed an AI-powered &quot;Enterprise Immune System&quot; that learns the normal behavior patterns within an organization's digital systems and identifies anomalies that may indicate cyber attacks or vulnerabilities.
 
 
 
 
 Darktrace's core product offerings include Darktrace PREVENT, DETECT, RESPOND, and HEAL. The PREVENT module proactively identifies risks and vulnerabilities. DETECT uses machine learning to spot threats in real-time across networks, cloud environments, IoT devices, and email systems. RESPOND provides autonomous response capabilities to contain active threats within seconds. The HEAL module, slated for release in 2023, aims to restore systems to pre-attack states.
 
 
 
 
 The company's technology can monitor up to 1 million devices and is compatible with major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Darktrace claims its AI can reduce threat investigation time by 92% compared to manual methods. The platform provides visualization tools like the Threat Visualizer to help analysts investigate anomalies.
 
 
 
 
 In April 2021, Darktrace went public on the London Stock Exchange at a USD 2.37 billion valuation. The company reported having over 9,400 customers across more than 100 countries. The company's AI cybersecurity solutions are used by organizations of all sizes across various industries.
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 
 Darktrace's client base includes notable companies like Allianz, Airbus, and the city of Las Vegas. In June 2024, Darktrace won Microsoft UK's Partner of the Year Award, highlighting the growing collaboration between the two companies. Darktrace's AI tools are now fully compatible with Microsoft Copilot for Security, allowing customers to analyze Darktrace's security data using natural language processing. This integration aims to speed up threat response and investigations for joint customers.
 
</div>

Darktrace

Material Security is an email security company that pioneered the use of zero-trust techniques to protect email accounts and their contents. The company's platform automatically classifies and reacts to sensitive content in emails, securing critical messages without impacting productivity. Its key product offerings include account takeover protection, which prevents attackers from hijacking other services by adding a verification step before granting access to password resets and critical messages. The platform also offers phishing "herd immunity" that allows a single report from any employee to protect the entire organization instantly.
Material Security provides visibility and control over an organization's entire email footprint, surfacing foundational risk factors and offering one-click remediation tools claimed to expedite investigations. The service integrates with Office 365 and Google Workspace via APIs without affecting MX records or email delivery. As of May 2022, the company served customers such as Chubb Ltd., Compass Group plc, Roblox Corp., Brex Inc., Lyft Inc., Mars Inc., Databricks Inc., and DoorDash Inc.
In May 2022, Material Security raised USD 100 million in Series C funding at a USD 1.1 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status just two years after its official product launch. The company planned to use the funding to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering teams, extend into new areas like government, and grow internationally. As of May 2024, Material Security had been acquired, with details of the acquisition included in the "Overview" section.

Material Security

Tessian is an email security company that focuses on protecting enterprises from threats arising due to human error. It leverages machine learning to build behavioral models for all employees and automatically detect security threats such as business email compromise, data exfiltration, phishing, and accidental data loss. Tessian's platform, referred to as "human layer security," notifies employees of these issues to help improve individual security behaviors.
In May 2021, Tessian had raised a total of USD 123.7 million in funding and was valued at USD 500 million. At that time, the company planned to invest in research and development, expand its product offerings beyond email security, and grow its workforce globally.
Tessian's approach proved effective, as evidenced by a report from July 2022 that found US employees sent an average of four emails to the wrong person each month in the first nine months of 2021. Nearly one-third of employees who reported such incidents indicated their business lost a client or customer due to the error.
In December 2023, Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, acquired Tessian. The acquisition aimed to combine Proofpoint's threat and data loss protection technology with Tessian's AI-powered behavioral and dynamic detection capabilities. This integration was expected to provide organizations with a comprehensive defense against human-targeted threats and prevent data loss across various collaboration channels.

Tessian

Solutions that use AI to detect and block email-based attacks including phishing, business email compromise, malware, impersonation, spam, and data exfiltration.

Solutions that use AI to eliminate email-based attacks caused by inadvertent or malicious acts by internal users from leaving the network.

Solutions that encrypt emails for secure access and collaboration.

Solutions that automatically detect and prevent accidental data loss caused by sending emails to the wrong recipients or with wrong attachments.

Solutions that provide user awareness training on email-based threats.

Solutions that securely store emails in an accessible location for future retrieval.

Uses AI/ML and behavioral analysis to detect suspicious activity in emails

Uses NLP to detect suspicious activity in emails

Proton

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