Sarus raises €2 million to drive innovative data applications that protect privacy
Paris, April 22nd 2020: Sarus, the privacy-tech company powering innovation on data, has raised €2 million in a seed round led by Serena, with co-investor XAnge.
Sarus lets data scientists and analysts work on confidential datasets without accessing them directly. The company provides a systematic solution to the challenges of working with personal data, enabling faster innovation, guaranteeing stronger privacy, and mitigating data leakage risks. Sarus seamlessly integrates with standard machine-learning and BI tools, providing access to new datasets and exhaustive data that would not otherwise be available. Sarus guarantees no personal information will be leaked and makes re-identification impossible using Differential Privacy, an approach that has become the standard to guarantee privacy is protected when carrying out analyses.
Using personal data when building innovative solutions is a major challenge across all industries. With Sarus, businesses see reduced time-to-market for new products, medical research leverages extended datasets, or governments design more efficient public policies.
Take the COVID-19 crisis where efficient action requires leveraging sources of very personal information (geolocation, medical records, social networks, etc.), Sarus makes it possible to unlock all the value of such data while fully protecting privacy, which is a game changer.
“The world is very conscious of the privacy risks posed by using personal information for AI applications. To protect individuals, current mitigation methods focus on reducing data accuracy and restricting access, which considerately hampers efficacy and velocity. Sarus turns this problem around by not exposing any data whatsoever and focusing instead on the end-goal of the analysis”, said Maxime Agostini, co-founder and CEO of Sarus.
“I fully believe in Sarus’s vision. While many entrepreneurs have been working on the issue, the way Sarus removes the dependency on data sensitivity in AI innovation workflows is a truly novel idea. Their ability to bring the latest privacy technology to real business issues is an incredible achievement!”, said Kamel Zeroual, partner at Serena.
“By addressing all privacy concerns, Sarus makes it possible for partners to exchange value from their data assets. It paves the way for new exchanges of value for enterprises or public institutions without jeopardizing individual rights,” said Nicolas Rose, partner at XAnge.
About Sarus Technologies
Sarus was founded by three entrepreneurs with strong engineering and mathematical backgrounds. Prior to Sarus, they successfully built AlephD, an AI company that was acquired by Verizon Media in 2016. The company has a dozen open positions in engineering, data science, business development and marketing in Paris.
About Serena
Serena invests, from Seed to Series C, in bold ventures that transform their industry, providing them on-demand expertise and support in Paris, New York, and Singapore.
Serena portfolio companies can leverage the Operating Partner model they pioneered in Europe, and benefit from the support of a very active C-Level community through the Serena Squad platform, open exclusively to past and present companies, each contributing to the others’ success.
About XAnge
As a leading European venture capital firm based in Paris and Munich, XAnge invests in innovative technology companies operating in the digital consumer, enterprise data, fintechs & deeptechs. Since our inception in 2003, we have backed more than 100 fast growing companies in their entrepreneurial journeys to create new frontier markets or to reinvent large core markets. We are privileged to work alongside great founders with strong values, of remarkable businesses such as Ledger, Lydia, Odoo, Neolane, Believe Digital, Evaneos, Welcome to the Jungle, Chauffeur Privé/Kapten and many more.
