Very Good Security (VGS), a San Francisco, CA-based data security company, has closed is Series A round on $8.5m.
The new round, which brings the company’s total funding to date to $9.9m, was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from NYCA, Vertex Ventures, Slow Ventures and Max Levchin.
Founded in 2016, Very Good Security lets companies collect, secure and exchange sensitive data without the risk or liability associated with storing it on their own systems. It claims by reducing or eliminating data security scope, its customers can achieve compliance certifications (e.g. PCI, SOC2, EI3PA, HIPAA) and accelerate their time to market.
VGS collects and stores the sensitive data in its own secure vaults, freeing customers from the costs and liability of building and maintaining their own compliant security systems.
When customer applications require sensitive data, VGS identifies that data in transit and swaps it for surrogate values that retain the same functionality of the original data.
“Data security and compliance shouldn’t hold companies back from getting to market safely and quickly,” Mahmoud Abdelkader, CEO and co-founder of VGS, said. “This investment fuels our mission to securely power the world’s sensitive data and transform data security from a business obstacle into a competitive advantage.”
Customers include Flutterwave, a payment technology provider for pan-African commerce; Shift Payments, a card issuer that allows users to spend both fiat and digital/cryptocurrencies anywhere major credit cards are accepted; Deserve, an analytics-based financial technology company that connects customers to fair credit products; and LendUp, a FinTech company providing loans and credit products as well as financial education.
VGS allows customers to scale rapidly without having to worry about data breaches, regulatory issues, or service provider security requirements that could significantly slow a company’s growth.
“We appreciate VGS’ approach to compliance and security, as it aligns well with our philosophy of protecting cardholder data,” Venkat Udayasankar, architect for LendUp Card Services, said. “Together, we’ve been able to quickly craft a PCI Level 1 solution that fits our business needs. VGS integrations were seamless, fast and easy, allowing us to focus on LendUp’s core business.”
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