Duality, a safety startup co-founded by the inventor of homomorphic encryption, raises $16M
Prerna Mahtani,
5 years ago
2 min read
The universality of APIs and cloud solutions have started up a world of exciting ways for businesses to build a service without having to create every part of it.
However, they have unleashed something more, too: an extended risk of violations resulting from data being transferred and used in various places and many ways.
The Use of Homomorphic Encryption
Presently, a startup that has created a way to help safeguard against that threat.
By using homomorphic encryption is announcing the funding, a type of market demand, and the possibility it presents for cybersecurity.
Duality is a company that develops solutions based on homomorphic encryption.
It is a method that encrypts an organization’s data in a system that lets it stay encrypted even as the company cooperates with third parties that also process the data.
Thet have recently announced that it has raised $16 million in funding.
The Series A round is being driven by Intel Capital, with support from Hearst Ventures and Team8.
Team8 is the heavyweight Israeli cybersecurity incubator that adds Intel as a vital partner, and itself has a great list of backers, including Microsoft, Walmart, Eric Schmidt, and Accenture.
Additional companies that Duality operates with are in the financial markets, healthcare, and insurance, although it states that it cannot reveal who because of NDAs.
One client it did mention was the CDA, the Cyber Defense Alliance, in the U.K., a cross-bank security company.
Another may well be Hearst, the additional investor listed in this round.
There are a few other cybersecurity startups and more prominent companies developing that are creating solutions on the system of homomorphic encryption.
They involve Enveil, CryptoNext Security, and IBM.
How Is Duality Different?
Duality, however, has an unusual pedigree when it comes to the field: one of the co-founders, Shafi Goldwasser, got a Turing Award for her groundbreaking work in cryptographic algorithms that form the foundation of homomorphic encryption.
That being said, there is yet a lot of time and computing force needed to process encrypted data.
And so the purpose of Duality is that it is used on a company’s most delicate information.
With a bit of the funding going to R&D, it will be exciting to see whether algorithms can develop enough to reach that kind of encryption in a reasonable way to broader data sets.
For more information and the latest tech news, keep reading iTMunch.
