Businesses have data inventory problems. The amount of data being collected and stored is increasing, and that data is distributed across different storage buckets. However, many organizations rely on a process that essentially amounts to a paper-and-pencil method to track the provenance of their data. According to one study, more than 50% of companies use Excel spreadsheets for data privacy and compliance efforts.
Karthik Krishnan, Shankar Subramaniam, and Madhu Shashanka thought they might have the engineering talent to build something that would make this easier for companies. All three had their first experience in the field of cybersecurity. A few years ago, Subramaniam and Shashanka hired Krishnan as one of their first employees at Nyala, a behavioral analysis startup.
A few years after Hewlett Packard acquired Niara, the three began envisioning an enterprise data management tool. They envisioned a product that could catalog a company's critical data, including information stored in infrequently accessed locations, and automatically flag data at risk of compromise. Ta.
“We wanted to solve one of the most pressing data security challenges facing modern enterprises,” Krishnan told TechCrunch. “This means identifying and protecting business-critical information at scale in structured and unstructured data stored on-premises or in the cloud.”
The trio built an MVP and founded a company called Concentric AI to further develop and commercialize it. Today, Concentric has customers in industrial manufacturing, insurance, and higher education, including auto insurer Hagerty and DeVry University.
Krishnan explained how the technology works.
First, customers link Concentric to databases, data stores, email and messaging apps, and even generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot. Concentric then uses AI to find sensitive data such as passwords, private files, and audio and video recordings of meetings in linked locations.
Concentric AI monitoring dashboard. Image credit: Concentric AI
Concentric then provides recommendations to customers on how to better protect their data and adhere to compliance standards. You can also trace lineage to show where certain data comes from and how it's being used.
“Data security operations are a huge challenge,” Krishnan said. “Concentric allows customers to identify anomalous activity and remediate those issues to prevent data loss.”
But doesn't monitoring all this corporate data pose a huge security risk? What if Concentric gets hacked, or what happens if a hacker tries to intercept the data flowing between your app and Concentric's platform? Is it?
Krishnan said Concentric doesn't work with raw data. Instead, create a semantic representation of your data and data categories. “Concentric AI products do not store sensitive user data,” he said.
Concentric is not alone in tapping into a data protection market that could be worth more than $500 billion by 2032, according to some estimates. The startup competes with vendors such as Varonis, BigID, Netwrix, Spirion, Cyera, and Securiti.
Still, Krishnan said Concentric's customer base is growing steadily, increasing 300% year-over-year.
The boom is undoubtedly due to the ever-expanding amount of data that organizations have to contend with. According to a study by Matillion, data professionals say their companies' data volumes are growing by an average of 63% per month.
“There is an unprecedented demand for data security posture management around the world,” Krishnan said.
San Mateo-based Concentric recently closed a $45 million Series B round co-led by Top Tier Capital Partners and HarbourVest with participation from CyberFuture, Ballistic Ventures, Citi Ventures, Engineering Capital, and Clear Ventures. This new funding brings the company's total capital raised to $67 million, with the new cash to be used to expand Concentric's partner program and product portfolio, as well as grow its workforce to 125 people by 2025. I plan to