Cybersecurity startup Antimatter today launched from stealth mode and announced that it has closed a $12 million early-stage funding round led by NEA. 

More than a half-dozen other investors participated in the Series A round as well. They included General Catalyst and UNION Labs, as well as the founders of Snowflake Inc., Databricks Inc., VMware Inc. and several other enterprise technology companies.

Antimatter, incorporated as True Technologies Inc., is developing a platform that aims to help software-as-a-service providers simplify their cybersecurity operations.

Enterprises often keep sensitive business data in the SaaS products they use. As a result, SaaS providers have to implement numerous cybersecurity measures to protect customer data from hacking attempts. Setting up the necessary cybersecurity infrastructure takes a significant amount of time and effort. 

Antimatter’s platform aims to simplify the task. The startup says that its platform, which is currently in beta, will enable SaaS providers to protect customer data without having to make extensive changes to their code or infrastructure. The startup is also promising to simplify a number of related tasks. 

Antimatter says that its platform protects data using secure enclaves, a technology included in certain processors from Intel Corp. and other chipmakers. The technology turns a portion of a server’s memory into an encrypted data processing environment. This environment is isolated from the rest of the server, which means that it can’t be breached even if another workload running on the same machine is infected with malware.

Besides simplifying cybersecurity tasks, Antimatter also plans to help SaaS companies with the process of managing where they store customer data. Some organizations must keep data in the jurisdiction where it was generated to comply with regulations. According to Antimatter, its platform includes features that can make it easier for SaaS companies to address customers’ regulatory requirements.

“We’re solving one of the most difficult problems we experienced as SaaS founders – one that nearly everyone we’ve spoken with has called a massive headache,” said Antimatter co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Krioukov (pictured, left, with co-founders Michael Andersen and Beau Trincia). “We’re hearing overwhelming enthusiasm from CTOs who see our solution as a ‘holy grail’ for meeting customer data security requirements without a huge lift from their dev or DevOps teams.”

Antimatter plans to use the round to hire more engineers and continue developing its cybersecurity platform. 

Photo: Antimatter