Consumer-grade security tools often focus on one type of measure, such as password protection, VPN, or identity management. Because of this, people need to use multiple tools to protect their data privacy. Cloaked, a company that offers a bundle of alternative security and privacy solutions, announced Thursday that it has secured $375 million in Series B funding and growth funding to expand its consumer offerings and enter the enterprise market.
The company was founded in 2020 by brothers Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar and initially offered users the ability to create multiple identities and log into various services using data such as emails, phone numbers, passwords, etc. without providing any actual data. Over the years, Cloaked has rolled out other services such as data deletion, identity theft insurance, VPN, and dark web monitoring. Last year, the company introduced AI-powered call screening.
In a world where hackers and fraudsters can now use AI to obtain data and money in novel ways, Cloaked sees an opportunity to protect consumers.
Image credit: CloakedImage credit: Cloaked
“We have seen that AI is more capable of compromising individuals than humans, and we see this as an issue of personal safety, family safety, and financial fraud. [AI proliferating] Regarding fraudulent spam and phishing. And in this era of surveillance, how do you find a solution that fits between these different aspects, and we are winning in this category from the consumer side,'' said Arjun Bhatnagar, CEO of the company.
This year, the company plans to expand its AI-powered screening protections to texting, email, and browsing. We are also testing an AI agent that can perform actions on behalf of users, such as changing passwords for services whose data has been compromised. Bhatnagar said the plan is to use AI in a secure manner and not pass sensitive information to the cloud.
The company told TechCrunch that it has grown 10x in the last year and now has more than 350,000 paying customers. We also secured 10 million identities and helped users clean over 1 billion records from data broker sites. Bhatnagar said the app has handled over 50 million fraudulent or spam calls since it launched its call screening feature last year.
Cloaked is now being rolled out to enterprises, providing employees with the same protections found in consumer products, including ID and password management. This product alerts employees to potential fraud. In addition, corporate CISOs can see individual risk levels and see aggregate data on records cleaned and fraud thwarted. And you can see that there may be fraud or data that can affect your company's business.
Image credit: CloakedImage credit: Cloaked
The startup has nearly 70 employees and aims to grow its team in various areas including product, engineering, enterprise sales, and international expansion.
Cloaked competes with 1Password, Gaurdio, Firefox, Proton, Mozilla, and more. The company also has some products that overlap with one of its investors, DuckDuckGo, which offers VPN and identity theft protection.
The latest round was led by General Catalyst and Liberty City Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital, Human Capital, Marquee Ventures, Fifth Growth Fund, NFL Players Association, LG Technology Ventures, Assurant Ventures, and DuckDuckGo. General Catalyst also provided growth capital through its Customer Value Fund, which lends money to startups without diluting capital to accelerate customer acquisition. The startup did not disclose its valuation or the split between equity and growth capital.
Prior to this, Cloaked had raised over $29 million in funding from investors including Lux Capital, Human Capital, and General Catalyst.
Mark Crane, a partner at General Catalyst, said the company has invested in startups in all previous rounds, but this is the first time it has led a round. He said Cloaked's suite of security and privacy products is suitable for a wide range of consumers.
Crane believes Cloaked has the right product to protect people and businesses in the new AI-driven internet, and will be a great “housekeeping stamp of approval” for users in a world with many AI agents.
“In terms of product, they've built a ton of surface area for consumers and things they want to use for privacy,” he told TechCrunch by phone. “Some people want to use everything right out of the box, and some people want to use a small part. And the benefit of Cloaked is that any consumer can approach whatever they're interested in and get the solution they want and need.”