London-based data privacy startup Privitar closes $80M Series C funding round

As organizations embrace data analytics and move to modern data platforms such as cloud data lakes, having a centralized platform to protect and manage sensitive data at scale becomes essential in order to reduce the time it takes to make data available to users, protect against insider threats and reduce the risk of a breach. Enter Privitar, a London-based data privacy startup that is unlocking the advantage of data-driven insights while ensuring data privacy. Privitar works with leading enterprise customers such as HSBC, Citi, the UK’s National Health Service and AstraZeneca to manage and automate the enforcement of data privacy policies on modern platforms.

Today, announced that it has closed $80 million Series C funding to expand platform capabilities, accelerate growth, and empower businesses worldwide to unlock the advantage of safe, useable data. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, with participation from Accel, Partech, IQ Capital, Salesforce Ventures and ABN AMRO Ventures.

The investment comes less than a year after a $40 million Series B funding round led by Accel in June 2019. This raise enables Privitar to further accelerate the development of its data privacy platform, fuel continued innovation, and support key growth initiatives, with a focus on international expansion and increased hiring across sales, services, product development, and other areas of the business.

Founded in 2014 by Gerard Buggy, Jason du Preez, and John Taysom, Privitar’s software is designed to allow clients to analyze potentially sensitive data while respecting customers’ privacy and confidentiality, resulting to the ability to leverage large, sensitive data sets while ensuring compliance with regulations and ethical data principles.

“The Privitar platform enables our customers to unlock and use their data to create better products and services while minimizing friction and risk,” said Jason du Preez, CEO of Privitar. “Large enterprises in regulated industries like financial services and healthcare have been early adopters of data privacy solutions, but all companies should look for ways to use data more safely and more effectively. Managing sensitive data at enterprise scale and complexity is a real challenge for even the most sophisticated data organizations. By automating the enforcement of data protection strategies, Privitar’s platform makes this achievable in any data-driven organization. We are excited to partner with Warburg Pincus as we continue to pioneer the category.”

Warburg Pincus is a leading global private equity firm with significant expertise in venture capital and growth investing. The firm has invested more than $17 billion in technology companies since inception and is one of the most active growth investors in cybersecurity. Recent notable investments include CrowdStrike, Contrast Security, and BitSight.

“The advent of data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, combined with the increasing importance of data analytics in the enterprise, has created a growing need for a privacy solution that protects sensitive data while still retaining its business value. We believe that Privitar is best positioned to help companies address this challenge, with a leading platform that has been successfully deployed at some of the largest and most discerning enterprise customers across financial services, healthcare, and other industries,” said Cary Davis, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. “We see an enormous opportunity ahead of the company and are excited to partner with Jason and the rest of the Privitar team to support the next phase of the company’s growth.”