Start-up Society #54: The Compliance Tech Issue
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Published in
9 min readMay 31, 2021
Welcome to the 54th edition of Start-up Society! This is a weekly blog that promotes nationwide entrepreneurship and highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
Happy Memorial Day!
Ever break a law you didn't know existed? Well, it happens to companies all the time. We are going all over the country to meet companies that prevent ZoomBombings, secure customer data, and keep cannabis compliant.
California
Theta Lake
HQ: Santa Barbara
Founded: 2017
Total Raised: $17.7M
About the Company
- Theta Lake provides compliance and security tools for the conferencing software that has become so prevalent and essential (Zoom, Webex, Teams, etc.).
- The company uses patented and multi-patent pending artificial intelligence (AI) to detect risks across video, visual, voice, chat and document content. This AI helps any organizations address risks including data exposure, phishing, account compromise, acceptable use and regulatory compliance risks all while addressing archiving and supervision requirements.
“The need for security and compliance solutions that fully cover modern collaboration tools should be obvious to everyone. That need pre-existed the pandemic, but now is more pressing than ever. The shift from physical work sites and employer-owned networks with tightly managed devices and applications, to a distributed workplace that lives inside your collaboration tools means organizations need new security and compliance coverage that lives inside that new workplace.” — Devin Redmond, Theta Lake CEO
- The company raised $12.7 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by Lightspeed Venture Partners on October 27, 2020, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $26 million. Cisco Investments, Neotribe Ventures, Firebolt Ventures, and WestWave Capital also participated in the round. The funding will be used in the company’s patented product while increasing its service delivery capabilities for organizations to protect their data and employees.
Meet the Team
Devin Redmond, Co-Founder & CEO
- Previously, Devin earned his bachelor's degree from UC San Diego in 1995. He began his career in the late 90s spending over five years in business development and product management, including a 4-year stint at Check Point Software Technologies.
- He continued his career in product management from 2001 to 2011 working at Applied Identity and Websense (now known as Forcepoint).
- He founded his first company, Nextgate, in 2011. Nextgate was acquired by Proofpoint in 2014 for approximately $35.0 million in cash. He continued on at Proofpoint as the GM of Digital Security and Compliance Solutions.
Rich Sutton, Co-Founder & CTO
- Previously, Rich earned his B.A. in Communications from Stanford University in 1993. He started his career in 1997 as a software engineer until 2006, which included a nearly 5-year run at Symantec.
- He then served as a Director of Engineering at 8e6 Technologies and at Websense, where he worked with Devin.
- In 2011, he co-founded Nextgate with Devin and served as CTO. After the acquisition, he became the VP of Engineering at Proofpoint for two and a half years before co-founding Theta Lake.
Dan Nadir, Chief Product Officer
- After earning his degree from UC San Diego in Cognitive Science, Dan began his career in Product Management in 1997 working at ISS (acquired by IBM), FrontBridge Technologies (acquired by Microsoft), ScanSafe (acquired by Cisco) & Breach Security (acquired by Trustwave).
- After an impressive streak of managing products at acquired start-ups, he served as Senior Director and VP of Product Management at Symantec and Proofpoint respectively for a collective eleven years.
- He joined Theta Lake as Chief Product Officer in April 2020, having worked with Devin and Rich at Proofpoint.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- The Company leverages its impressive founding team that boasts an impressive track record of acquisitions, product experience, and management experience in order to build a company that is capitalizing on the second-order effects of the global pandemic we find ourselves in.
- Remote conferencing tech will grow from $8.9 billion in 2019 to $23 billion by the end of this year. This 2.5x increase in capital is going to flow into more companies than just Zoom, Teams, and Webex.
- The Cambrian explosion of technologies around remote conferencing has enabled the rise of Theta Lake as a leader in compliant, secure, and thoughtful remote conferencing.
Go Deeper
Cisco invests in conferencing compliance software Theta Lake
Lightspeed Venture Partners backs Theta Lake’s video conferencing security tech with $12.7 million
Georgia
OneTrust
HQ: Atlanta
Founded: 2016
Total Raised: $920M
About the Company
- OneTrust helps companies manage their privacy, security, and data governance so they can comply with global regulations.
- The company provides privacy management solutions that allow businesses to operationalize the CCPA, GDPR, LGPD, PDPA and more of the world’s privacy laws and frameworks. From 40 in-house researchers and a network of 500+ contributors across 300 jurisdictions, OneTrust’s DataGuidance Research service allows businesses to build and maintain a privacy-first culture.
- OneTrust also offers Vendorpedia, its third-party risk software that leverages a database of pre-completed vendor risk assessments and profiles on over 70,000 vendors, and offers vendor onboarding and offboarding.
- OneTrust further offers data governance solutions built for security, data, analytics and technology teams; consent and preference software solutions built for marketing, privacy and media teams; ethics and compliance solutions built for compliance, HR and legal teams; and environmental, social and governance solutions built for sustainability, finance and procurement teams.
- In April 2021, OneTrust raised $210 million in a Series C extension funding round with a pre-money valuation of $5.1 billion. SoftBank Vision Fund led the funding round with participation from Franklin Templeton Investments. The funds will be used to meet market demand in Asia and expand into Japan, as well as to optimize the company’s technology and execute on strategic partnerships.
Meet the Team
Kabir Barday, Founder, President & CEO
- In 2010, Kabir joined AirWatch as an early employee, where he worked in Implementation Consulting. AirWatch was acquired by VMware in 2014.
- Following the acquisition, Kabir stayed at VMware where he became Director of Product Management. After two years, he left the company to start OneTrust.
- Prior to that, Kabir was a Software Developer at BlackRock.
- Kabir earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Entrepreneurship from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Alan Dabbiere, Chairman
- Previously, Alan was the Chairman of AirWatch and a Board Member of PrimeRevenue.
- Prior to that, he was the Founder, President, and CEO of Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ:MANH).
- Alan earned both his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and his MBA from Indiana University Bloomington.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- OneTrust has been ranked the #1 fastest growing company on the Inc. 500 and provides services to more than half of the Fortune 500. In fact, as seen by the chart below, OneTrust has been the market share leader for two years in a row.
- In order for this momentum to continue, OneTrust’s global expansion will be vital. From the recent Series C funding round, OneTrust will attempt to meet market demands in Asia. However, due to how global data has become and how global privacy threats are, OneTrust shouldn’t stop its expansion to just Asia. Its strategic partnerships and global footprint should spread across as many continents as possible. Only then can a true market share leadership be attained and sustained.
Go Deeper
OneTrust acquires Shared Assessments to standardize third-party risk management
OneTrust is “Leading the Market Outright” and Ranked #1 in Market Share for Privacy Software
OneTrust raises $210M to expand its enterprise compliance solutions
Illinois
Fyllo
HQ: Chicago
Founded: 2019
Total Raised: $58M
About the Company
- Fyllo offers compliance cloud enterprise-grade software and database services for the cannabis industry.
- The company has a Data Marketplace that contains the largest ecosystem of cannabis and CBD purchase data. Companies can utilize the endemic data and non-endemic data to target different audiences.
- Fyllo also offers CannaRegs, an intelligent regulatory database that aggregates and organizes federal, state and local cannabis research, helping companies stay up-to-date on compliance and regulatory analysis.
- Fyllo has a media activation service that offers media planning, execution, and analytics solutions. The company also provides automated compliance solutions for product campaigns, targeting SMS solutions, loyalty platforms, and online ordering capabilities.
- Some of Fyllo’s customers include Apothecanna, Grassroots, Kopari, Columbia Care, ikanik Farms, Harvest, The Harborside Group, and Eden Enterprises.
- The company recently raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Sol Global Investments and JW Asset Management, with participation from Salveo Capital, K2, George Steinbrenner IV, Entourage Effect Capital, and Arcadian Capital. The funds will be used to expand its digital marketing and compliance solutions beyond the cannabis industry.
Meet the Team
Chad Bronstein, Co-Founder & CEO
- Currently, Chad is also the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Wesana, a Member of YPO, and a Strategic Advisor at OpenWeb.
- Previously, he was the Chief Revenue Officer of North America at Amobee and the Vice President of Direct Sales and Midwest-Central at Adconion Media Group (acquired by Amobee in 2014).
- Chad earned a degree in Sociology from Miami University.
Erik Shani, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
- Previously, Erik was the Vice President of Brand Intelligence Solutions at Amobee and Vice President of Product Strategy and Partnerships at Kontera (acquired by Amobee in 2014).
- He was also a Presence Platform System Engineer at NeuStar and a Presence Platform Software Engineer at Followap.
- Erik earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Technion — Israel Institute of Technology and his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Aristotle Loumis, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, & Chief Business Officer
- Aristotle is also a Co-Founder of Wesana and a Member of YPO.
- He is a Limited Partner at LongJump, a Seed Investor and Founding Advisory Board Member at MediaKits, and a Managing Partner at KALTEQ.
- Previously, he was the Founder, CEO, & Chairman of Ellison (acquired by Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group), President of Marcus Lemonis Eyewear Group, and a Managing Partner at Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group.
- Aristotle completed his pre-dentistry studies at Trinity International University and the University of Iowa. He also completed a graduate program in Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Iowa.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- Fyllo announced that it will be using its Series B funds to expand its solutions beyond the cannabis industry. While this may bring about additional avenues of revenue, this can sway the company away from its core value proposition of offering compliance solutions to the cannabis industry.
- With cannabis legalization and global destigmatization on the rise, maneuvering regulations and staying compliant will become increasingly complex. As a result, Fyllo should remain as steadfast as possible to tackle the global expansion of the cannabis industry and cannabis laws.
Go Deeper
Fyllo Raises $30M for Its Cannabis Tech Solutions, Plans to Grow Team
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.
Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, and Elham Chowdhury
