Concentric AI raises $45 million in series B funding to autonomously secure business-critical data

In May 2022, we reported on Concentric AI after the San Jose, California-based startup raised $14.5 million in Series A funding to tackle one of the biggest data security challenges facing enterprises today. A lot has changed since then. In just six months, Concentric AI achieved 300% year-over-year growth and tripled its customer base. Fast forward two years later, and the San Jose-based company has secured new funding to meet rising demand.

Today, Concentric AI announced it has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Top Tier Capital Partners and HarbourVest Partners. CyberFuture, a global alliance of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), also joined the round after evaluating several DSPM vendors. Existing investors, including Ballistic Ventures, Engineering Capital, Clear Ventures, and Citi Ventures, participated as well.

This round brings Concentric AI’s total funding to over $67 million. The fresh capital will be used to expand its go-to-market strategies and accelerate the development of its AI-driven data security solutions, further solidifying its leadership in the Data Security Governance market.

Alongside the funding news, Concentric AI also welcomed Garth Timoll Sr., General Partner at Top Tier Capital Partners, to its Board of Directors.

Founded in 2018 by Karthik Krishnan, Concentric AI specializes in protecting a wide range of business-critical data, including intellectual property, financial data, PII/PCI, customer information, and confidential business content. The company’s solutions extend across both on-premises and cloud-based data environments, as well as messaging and communication platforms.

In today’s data-driven world, organizations are overwhelmed with sensitive data they struggle to protect. With the constant headlines of data breaches, the need to safeguard business-critical information has never been more urgent. The hybrid workforce and increased reliance on cloud environments only add to this challenge.

Concentric AI addresses one of the most pressing issues modern enterprises face: securing vital data within unstructured environments. The Data Security Governance market, which includes the DSPM and Data Access Governance (DAG) sectors, is expected to see rapid growth in the coming years, with the market projected to exceed $8 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 30%.

“Concentric AI is changing the way organizations of all sizes protect their most critical and sensitive data,” said Garth Timoll. “Top Tier Capital Partners looks to invest in companies with high growth potential, and Concentric AI’s leading DSPM solution, powered by AI and natural language processing, fits that perfectly.”

Barmak Meftah, Co-founder and General Partner at Ballistic Ventures, added, “Before we led the Series A, we assessed nearly every vendor in the DSPM space. The combination of data classification, governance, and new use cases involving sensitive data in AI systems represents a rapidly growing market. Concentric AI’s technology stands out, and we knew from the start that Karthik Krishnan and his team had the best product on the market. We’re thrilled to welcome Top Tier Capital Partners and HarbourVest Partners as we continue to experience incredible growth.”

Jesse Whaley, CISO and investor at CyberFuture, praised the company’s capabilities: “We examined the competitive DSPM landscape, and Concentric AI stood out because of its broad, deep capabilities and its ability to cover both on-premises and cloud environments.”

Jason Frame, CIO at Southern Nevada Health District, echoed this sentiment: “Concentric AI has helped us manage sensitive data across diverse environments. We’ve transitioned from manual, error-prone processes to a powerful, AI-driven data governance system. With Concentric AI, we’ve strengthened our data security and aligned our operations with required compliance standards.”

We first covered Concentric AI before the pandemic when the six-year-old startup emerged from stealth with $7.5 million in funding to protect sensitive enterprise data using AI. Concentric was the first to leverage AI and deep learning to identify the criticality and risk of millions of documents across enterprises, often exposed to misuse by employees. Now, Concentric AI is setting its sights on the $19 billion market for data security, access governance, and loss prevention.

Concentric AI Team