Gradient has been investing at the forefront of artificial intelligence since 2017. We are led by former founders, technical experts, and domain specialists who have supported hundreds of AI founders from the beginning. Gradient is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.gradient.com.

Gradient

Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy. They bring automation to traditional sectors of the economy.  Today, the company has backed nearly 30 companies. Base10 creates industry teams that consider what is going to happen in the next five years, and then call the companies they see playing a role. It either turns into an investment, or Base10 will follow the company for 18 months. It is based in San Francisco, California, and was founded in 2017.

Base10 Partners

BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies. The fund aims to invest in the consumer, enterprise, fintech, healthcare, life science, and marketplaces industries at the earliest stage, as early as pre-seed round and as late as Series A. It supports companies based on a conviction in the team and seeks entrepreneurs working at the beginning of movements in existing markets or new markets yet to be created and with visions to create the next generation of category-defining businesses. Their typical investment ranges from $200,000 to $500,000. Adam Rothenberg and David Tisch founded BoxGroup in 2009 in New York, New York.

BoxGroup

Soma Capital is a fund built by founders for founders that focuses on software. It has invested seed in startups now worth over $60 billion combined including Cruise, Rappi, Ironclad, Human Interest, Razorpay, Rippling, and Lambda School among others (20 unicorns) It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Soma Capital

Liquid2 Ventures provides technology startups with seed-stage investments and is based in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 2015 by Joe Montana, Mike Miller, and Michael Ma.

Liquid 2 Ventures

Chapter One Ventures is an early-stage seed fund created by Jeff Morris Jr.

Chapter One Ventures

Village Global is an early stage venture capital firm backed by some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.

Village Global

Worklife Ventures is the first venture capital firm designed for the new era of builders, creators, and individual contributors.  At the forefront of Worklife’s narrative is the idea that the future of work will be the end of traditional jobs and anyone can start their own business or creative empire from anywhere.

Worklife

Backend Capital is an early stage fund focused on investing in brilliant engineers.

Backend Capital

Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in early-stage, growth, and incubation companies. The firm continues that legacy, investing in founders with bold ideas that span industries and continents, partnering with them from inception to IPO and beyond to maximize the potential of their ideas. They also focus on early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. It also invests in the digital, life sciences, and healthcare industries.

Kleiner Perkins

Lorimer Ventures is an operator led investment firm backing bold entrepreneurs building exceptional B2B startups.

Lorimer Ventures

Banana Capital is an early stage investment firm

Banana Capital

Accomplice is a seed-led venture capital firm that invests in technology startup companies. Its specialties are cybersecurity, eSports, data analytics, SMB class software, emerging hardware platforms, and marketplaces.  Through platforms like AngelList, Boston Syndicates, and Maiden Lane, Accomplice harnesses the community to empower and fund the best founders. It has pioneered a community approach through platforms like Spearhead, BOSS, Rev, and TUGG. A majority of Accomplice’s investments are in Boston, with others throughout the U.S., Canada, and the E.U. Formerly known as Atlas Venture, the firm announced in October 2014 that it was splitting its technology and life sciences franchises. The technology group was renamed Accomplice; the life sciences group retained the name Atlas Venture.  Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Accomplice is one of the most active early-stage firms in New England.

Accomplice

Kaiser Permanente, commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser Permanente is made up of three distinct but interdependent groups of entities: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (KFHP) and its regional operating subsidiaries; Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and the regional Permanente Medical Groups. As of 2017, Kaiser Permanente operates in eight states (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia) and the District of Columbia, and is the largest managed care organization in the United States. Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare plans in the United States, with over 12 million members. It operates 39 hospitals and more than 700 medical offices, with over 300,000 personnel, including more than 87,000 physicians and nurses. Each Permanente Medical Group operates as a separate for-profit partnership or professional corporation in its individual territory, and while none publicly reports its financial results, each is primarily funded by reimbursements from its respective regional Kaiser Foundation Health Plan entity. KFHP is one of the largest not-for-profit organizations in the United States. KP's quality of care has been highly rated and attributed to an emphasis on preventive care, its doctors being salaried rather than paid on a fee-for-service basis, and an attempt to minimize the time patients spend in high-cost hospitals by carefully planning their stay. However, Kaiser has had disputes with its employees' unions; repeatedly faced civil and criminal charges for falsification of records and patient dumping; faced action by regulators over the quality of care it provided, especially to patients with mental health issues; and faced criticism from activists and action from regulators over the size of its cash reserves.

Kaiser Permanente

Flexport is a full-service global freight forwarder and logistics platform using modern software to fix the user experience in global trade. The platform arranges goods to be transported and tracks the inventory in real-time in orders carried by ocean, air, and road freight, enabling logistics companies to optimize transportation routes and inventory management. It is a licensed customs brokerage and freight forwarder built around a modern web application. Its freight service includes an online dashboard for businesses to easily understand, purchase, manage, and track the services required for global trade. Its team of logistics experts lets focus on core business by ensuring goods arrive at fulfillment/distribution centers on time and at the lowest cost. Flexport's mission is to fix the user experience in global trade and bring the world free trade through technology. The company was founded in 2013 by Ryan Petersen and is based in San Francisco, California.

Flexport

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital to date.  The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

Gaingels

Optum Ventures provides capital and strategic guidance to startup companies solving health care's pressing challenges. It is the venture capital investment arm of Optum that invests in digital health companies that use data and insights to help improve consumers' access to health care services and how care is delivered and paid for, and that makes the health care system more reliable and easier to navigate.

Optum Ventures

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

Contrary is a talent and research-driven investment firm. We back a small number of exceptional people and the companies they build.

Contrary

Marbruck is an open-ended venture capital group. Marbruck sources, invests, and provides ongoing guidance to early / growth stage technology companies. With no outside capital, Marbruck actively manages a diverse global portfolio of 30+ companies spanning Seed through to pre-listing. Marbruck leverages its intellectual capital, its network of partner investors, and its deep operational experience, to successfully navigate the highest-risk, highest-reward spectrum of investing.

Marbruck

Impatient Ventures invests in the founders building the future of internet money and enterprise tools. The firm was founded in 2015 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Impatient Ventures

Managers — Sriram Krishnan, Cindy Bi, Jens Lapinski, Anthony Pompliano, Kat Cole, Tim Chen, Julia Lipton, Tommy Leep

Angel Collective Opportunity Fund

Secureframe

Secureframe empowers businesses to build trust with customers by automating information security and compliance. Thousands of fast-growing businesses such as AngelList, Ramp, Remote, and Coda, trust Secureframe to simplify and expedite their compliance journey for global security and privacy standards such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and more.

<div>Secureframe provides an automated security compliance platform designed to protect businesses and individuals from online threats and vulnerabilities. The platform provides protection against malware, phishing, and other types of cyber attacks while also ensuring that sensitive data remains confidential and secure in compliance with privacy regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA. The platform features real-time threat detection, network security, data protection, and compliance management tools to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. The platform provides automated collection of audit evidence, security awareness training, infrastructure monitoring, and additional capabilities.</div>

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

Digital Privacy Tools

"Our Biggest Growth Goal is to Double our Revenue Year-over-Year," says Secureframe CEO Shrav Mehta

<div>
 
 Secureframe provides an automated security compliance platform designed to protect businesses and individuals from online threats and vulnerabilities. The platform provides protection against malware, phishing, and other types of cyber attacks while also ensuring that sensitive data remains confidential and secure in compliance with privacy regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA. The platform features real-time threat detection, network security, data protection, and compliance management tools to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. The platform provides automated collection of audit evidence, security awareness training, infrastructure monitoring, and additional capabilities.
 
 
 Secureframe has a risk register that continuously monitors and mitigates regulatory, legal, and financial risks. It also provides automated real-time alerts to notify users when there is a critical vulnerability that requires immediate attention. The company also has its own in-house compliance team to help users navigate security and privacy compliance issues. Secureframe&rsquo;s machine learning streamlines and automates the process of managing and completing requests for proposals (RFPs) and security questionnaires based on past responses.
 
 
 Secureframe integrates with over 100 services, including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Github, JAMF, and Okta.
 
 
 The company houses more than 150 employees across the US, Canada, and Europe.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of January 2023, the company served more than 1,000 companies including Stream, Coda, Ramp, Lyra, and Doodle. The company serves customers in the technology, retail, financial services, media, healthcare, manufacturing, government, and professional services sectors.
 
 
 Notable partners include the Johanson Group, Insight Assurance, and Prescient Security &amp; Assurance.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In February 2022, the company raised USD 56 million in a Series B funding round led by Accomplice. The funds were partially utilized to further expand the list to a broader range of standards, including those specific to regions and use cases.
 
 
 Secureframe recorded 10x annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth and 7x customer growth in 2021.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 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

Secureframe

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