Israeli data protection outfit BigID Inc. is prepping for its next stage of growth after landing a $14 million round of funding.

The Series A round was led by ClearSky Security, Comcast Ventures and the SAP.iO Fund. Previous investor BOLDstart Ventures also participated in the round, which brings BigID’s total funding to $16.1 million.

BigID’s main product is geared toward enterprises that want a reliable solution for protecting and managing the privacy of personal data. It does this by applying machine learning technology with what it calls “identity intelligence,” so it can find, track and “de-risk” petabytes of identity data.

The company and its investors are betting that its services will appeal to enterprises that will need to comply with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force in EU countries in May. “On the eve of GDPR and in the midst of endless mega breaches, we’re in a new era of personal data rights,” said Jay Leek, managing director at Clearsky Security, who has joined BigID’s board of directors.

Leek explained that once GDPR begins, enterprises that collect and store data on European citizens will suddenly be held accountable for whatever happens to that data. He said they’ll also need to be more transparent about how they safeguard user’s data, and as such many could well benefit from BigID’s capabilities.

One of the key capabilities of BigID’s platform is it has what the company said is a “unique ability” to instantly find data belonging to a specific individual – a key requirement of the GDPR rules.

“Regulations like GDPR crystallize the need for companies to understand their data,” said Dimitri Sirota, BigID’s chief executive officer. “BigID gives companies a first-of-its-kind way to find, secure and govern their identity data across the data center and cloud. After all, you can’t know your customer unless you first know their data.”

Asked about its next steps, BigID said it’s planning to use the new funds to expand its engineering teams in Israel and its marketing efforts to boost adoption of its platform.

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