Data privacy start-up Ethyca raises $4.2m seed round

July 25, 2019 – Data privacy start-up Ethyca announced that it had just closed its latest funding round, raising $4.2m.

The New York-based company was set up by Irish engineer Cillian Kieran, who previously founded BrandCommerce and digital consultancy firm CKSK.

The funding round was led by IA Ventures and Founder Collective, with Table Management and Sinai Ventures also participating. Cheddar’s Jon Steinberg and Moat co-founder Jonah Goodhart also contributed to the fund.

Ethyca will use this round of funding to build out its team and product. Director of MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative, Daniel Weitzner, will also join the company as an adviser.

The data privacy start-up provides developers and product teams with infrastructure to ensure consumer privacy throughout applications and services design.

It claims to act as an alternative to the existing privacy solutions, which the start-up labels as “retroactive band-aids that do not solve the root problem”.

TechCrunch broke down exactly how Ethyca works: “[It] helps companies discover sensitive data, then provides a mechanism for customers to see, edit or delete their data from the system. Finally, the solution enables companies to define who can see particular types of data across the organisation to control access. All of these components are designed to help companies comply with GDPR regulations.”

Kieran told TechCrunch that users do not need to be concerned about a third party accessing this data, as Ethyca never actually sees the raw data. “We are a suite of tools that sits between business processes. We don’t capture raw data. We don’t see personal information,” he said.