Software-as-a-Service platform WireWheel recently closed its Series A fundraising round, raising $10 Million. The Arlington based company modernizes global data privacy. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and PSP Growth, and saw participation from existing and new investors such as Grotech Ventures, Sands Capital and Revolution Capital’s Rise of the Rest Fund. This round brings WireWheel’s total capital raised to-date to $13 Million.
“The round will be used to further innovate on product capabilities, expand sales and marketing efforts and launch a partner program,” the company said in a statement. As part of the deal, Dayna Grayson of New Enterprise Associates and Michael Oleshansky of PSP Growth will be joining WireWheel’s Board of Directors.
The company uses human-assisted machine learning and cloud technology to help companies comply more quickly and efficiently with the new data privacy regulations around the world, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the new California Consumer Privacy Act. WireWheel has a rapidly growing roster of customers, some of whom are Blackboard and Under Armor. The company was also chosen to participate in the Tandem Product Academy’s upcoming first cohort.
CEO Justin Antonipillai founded the company in late 2016, after leading the Economic and Statistics Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama. Antonipillai led the American negotiating team in reaching the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework with Europe and also led extensive dialogues with European regulators on GDPR as it was being considered for approval.
“Privacy protection is a key trust, customer, and compliance matter, and we’re just scratching the surface of how powerful technology can be to help protect data privacy,” he said in a statement.
Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution, said the startup’s potential is based in good tech and good timing: “WireWheel is leveraging local expertise in policy, especially privacy and data protection, and combining that with know-how on databases, machine learning and technical infrastructure. We are excited about the WireWheel product and are proud to support them as they take on data privacy and data protection challenges.”
