Data encryption startup Vaultree Ltd. today closed on a $12.8 million early-stage round of funding that brings its total amount raised to $16 million.

The Series A round was led by Molten Ventures and Ten Eleven Ventures, and saw participation from SentinelOne, Elkstone Partners, CircleRock Capital, Cyber Club London and a number of prominent cybersecurity experts.

Vaultree, which is based in Ireland, is the creator of a unique end-to-end data encryption-as-a-service tool that makes it possible for companies to access and use their data without having to reveal their encryption keys or data content to a technology or cloud provider. The service relies on patented, enhanced searchable symmetric encryption and fully homomorphic encryption technologies, enabling companies to maintain full control of their data even while it’s being processed.

The startup says that traditionally companies have always been required to decrypt their data before it can be processed, creating significant risks in the event that one of their systems is breached. With data in a persistent state of encryption, companies can rest assured that even if a breach does happen, attackers will be unable to decipher the data they steal, making it useless to them.

According to Vaultree, data-in-use encryption aligns with zero-trust security principles, processing encrypted search and computations over data using standard hardware, without having to decrypt at the server level. The company hopes its service will become the new standard for enterprise data encryption, creating more foundational security.

One of the main benefits of Vaultree’s service is that companies will maintain full control over their data encryption keys via their preferred management server. In addition, it enables users to query and compute always-encrypted data without any impact on performance. Traditional encryption techniques have historically degraded performance, meaning that their use as a failsafe has been limited.

Tim Newberry, a cybersecurity expert and advisor to Ten Eleven Ventures who sits on Vaultree’s board of directors, said the startup is tackling one of the most pressing challenges in data security.

“It’s building a new kind of privacy-enhancing encryption technology based solution that will strengthen the protection of enterprise data while still enabling ease of use for data owners,” he said. “This is a difficult technical challenge and has a huge potential market impact. Over the last year the company has made important strides in product development and dramatically increased their market presence. We’re thrilled for what’s ahead.”

Vaultree’s Data-in-Use Encryption service has gained some momentum, most recently through a partnership with Google Cloud’s AlloyDB that provides users of that database with Data-in-Use Encryption capabilities.

The company said it will use the funds from today’s round to advance sales, marketing and product development, with the promise of faster feature releases and service readiness in future.

“Our goal is to make this technology the new benchmark by which all data security is measured, bringing a new level of protection to enterprises worldwide, by rendering breaches and leaks powerless and irrelevant,” said Vaultree co-founder and Chief Executive Ryan Lasmaili. “This funding brings us closer to disarming data breaches and cyberattacks on a global scale; realizing our vision of an encrypted tomorrow for all.”

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