#GDPRoblems: InCountry Raises $7 Million for First Data-Residency-as-a-Service Platform
“Ask not what you can do for InCountry — ask what InCountry can do for your global data compliance needs.”
Data privacy is the talk of the town. Young folks, old folks, even the old-old folks at the Shady Acres Bingo Nights, are all wondering if companies are spoon-feeding their Google and Alexa inquiries to a slimy data monster.
GDPR has only complicated matters. Aside from the cookie consent banners and user agreement pop-ups, companies are hamstrung by jurisdictional codes across countries, as well as state-to-state protocols. Processing and storing data in different territories is like bringing the wrong dish to a potluck; yes, you remembered that 🇫🇷France is gluten-free, but whoops, it turns out 🇩🇪Germany is lactose-intolerant and the 🇬🇧UK won’t touch shellfish.
Fret not, InCountry — the first data-residency-as-a-service-platform — is here to save the day-ta. Its first product offering, Profile, handles user profile and registration compliance, and is already live in 50 countries spanning six continents.
In addition to officially unveiling its service, InCountry today announced a $7 million seed round. Ridge Ventures is jazzed to join the soiree, which includes Caffeinated Capital, Felicis Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Charles River Ventures, Global Founders Capital // USA, and multiple angel investors.
But that’s just one layer of the tiramisu. The most exciting part, for us, is partnering with our longtime friend Peter Yared on yet another stellar endeavor. Peter, who sells enterprise companies like George Foreman Grills, embodies Ridge’s ideal founder persona: a software savant, with a knack for killer user interfaces, solving a big problem on a global scale.🌍
From co-investing with Peter in companies like MaintainX, and directly investing in his prior startup, Sapho, Ridge knows firsthand that he is masterful at sniffing out glaring needs across the enterprise spectrum. Look no further than Peter’s six exits to companies like Oracle, Sun, VMWare, and Citrix. The former CIO of CBS Interactive, Peter is also a member of Ridge’s CXO Network comprised of 70+ CIOs and CMOs across the Fortune 500.
💯 It’s no small feat that Peter’s founding a company just six months after Sapho’s exit to Citrix, and we believe InCountry may be his most impressive idea yet.
For one, Marty McFly and Doc Brown couldn’t time InCountry’s launch any better. Businesses, struggling to adapt to confusing and rapidly changing data protection laws, desperately need a solution that takes care of the heavy lifting. Short on time, resources, and domain expertise, a jaw-dropping 74 percent of businesses operating in the EU are still 🚫GDPR-noncompliant, even with noncompliance penalties ranging from $800,000 to billions of dollars.💰
To squelch these GDPRoblems, InCountry provides an all-in-one solution that stores data in its country of origin and ensures jurisdictional laws are met. As regulations shift, InCountry shadows each change accordingly so customer data is always fully compliant. InCountry’s partnerships with international law firms, as well as its global team of data compliance researchers, provide an extra layer of regulatory oversight.
⚠️ Compliance, particularly in the data sphere, is as precarious and unpredictable as white water rafting. InCountry’s team of globally distributed data experts ensures every unexpected turn is negotiated with aplomb. That said, there are plenty of life jackets on board. InCountry insures the data it stores and manages, covering up to three times the value of a customer’s spend.
Joining Peter’s foray into data land is Alex Castro, InCountry’s CPO. Alex is a former OG member of the Amazon Web Services team who also led Microsoft’s CRM efforts and worked on self-driving cars at Uber. Peter and Alex, Mr. Miyagi-like in their enterprise wisdom, both feel tech companies can innovate while still respecting data privacy legislation. It’s a topical and tremendously important cornerstone for InCountry, and Ridge is proud to champion the cause.
🎉Major daps to InCountry on the successful launch and funding round!
The Ridge Ventures Team
