There is a huge opportunity for organisations to unlock value from their data assets, however, doing this in a secure, compliant way is a problem for many due to changing data privacy regulations around the world and new data infrastructures. To solve this issue businesses have to invest in costly processes that require a lot of time and resource, often with manual processes or the use of multiple single-point solutions. This can create a barrier to using that data effectively or safely and in the event of non-compliance can result in severe penalties from regulators. 

Many of these challenges were experienced first-hand by Peter Lancos and Sonal Rattan, both former digital business leaders at HSBC, who founded eXate in 2018 to address these issues. They developed the platform based on a new and collaborative approach to simplifying the way that data is securely accessed, shared and governed, referred to as DataSecOps.

eXate combines and coordinates multiple privacy-enhancing technologies within a single intuitive platform, connected to built-in governance and controls. Allowing data policies to automatically be applied to data that is accessed or shared with greater speed and efficiency than manual methods or multiple single-point systems. eXate users have reported significant time and cost savings as data protection processes can now be realised in minutes instead of days. 

eXate already has blue-chip clients across banking and asset management, including incoming investors ING, with growing demand from other sectors such as telecoms and insurance.  

Peter Lancos, CEO, eXate, explained: “Organisations that store and process large volumes of data experience many challenges when it comes to data sharing. We see the biggest obstacles arise from the lack of joined-up thinking.  The use of expensive multiple single-point solutions, coupled with monitoring complicated country-by-country policies adds time and budget to data initiatives.”

“The key to delivering the best value for clients is to fully integrate data, security and operations in a single application through DataSecOps. This investment from leading venture capital firms, including one of our major banking clients, is a validation of what eXate has achieved to date and provides a solid foundation to bring the value of DataSecOps to a larger audience of data-driven organisations.” 

The funding will enable eXate to capitalise on DataSecOps demand by growing its team, accelerating platform development and expanding into new geographies and verticals. 

Andi Kazeroonian, Investor at Outward VC, commented on the investment: “Ensuring the protection of sensitive data is a mission-critical challenge for companies that wish to utilise data to deliver value to its stakeholders. eXate’s unique platform provides companies with the tools it requires to ensure data privacy and protection by design. The platform’s flexibility, speed of deployment and ease of use is capturing attention from some of the world’s largest financial institutions, all looking for simple and efficient ways to address this hugely complex problem. We are excited to back eXate’s exceptional team on their mission to simplify data protection through DataSecOps.”  

Frederic Hofmann, Managing Director at ING Ventures, added: “Building on the successful proof of concept that eXate completed in the ING Brussels Lab in 2019, ING Ventures is excited to support their journey to help organisations better utilise their data assets by ensuring security and privacy. This game-changing tool allows ING to safely test new software on real data to ensure effectiveness in production and helps us accelerate our innovation agenda by enabling us to collaborate more closely with external partners and across borders.”