Privitar operates at the intersection of Big Data, data science and cyber security, providing software products that add privacy protection to leading data infrastructures. With Privitar software, companies and government departments can publish and share data while protecting data privacy and maintaining regulatory compliance, solving what is currently a high priority Board-level issue. Building on its success in the UK banking and telecoms market, Privitar will use the funds to accelerate growth in the UK and expand its European footprint.

Organisations across private and public sectors are being challenged to do more with data. But they also have a universal responsibility to protect sensitive or confidential information. One high profile example was the cancellation of the National Health Service’s care.data programme in June. Despite the vision of boundless research opportunities enabled through access to large health care datasets, the programme failed due to privacy concerns. Likewise, in the private sector, companies are prioritising careful management of sensitive client data. In a post-Snowden age of increasing consumer awareness, individuals provide data under the assumption, and with the expectation, that companies will take the utmost care of their information, ensuring confidentiality and privacy, in order to provide better services and products.

Privitar software can provide three key benefits for companies in highly regulated industries. They can broaden the use of data by sharing data for secondary use and analytics, leading potentially to a monetisation of data assets. They can build consumer trust with leading data protection solutions that prioritise client confidentiality. Finally, privacy protection allows organisations to go beyond traditional perimeter security measures that do not protect against many insider threats. By taking a data-centric approach and implementing privacy-by-design principles, exposure to sensitive information is carefully restricted, even for those with permitted access.

“Every organisation that collects and analyses data is grappling with the issue of data privacy. They are all potential customers for our privacy-enhancing software solution,” said Jason du Preez, Privitar CEO. “That is why we are excited to be partnering with Illuminate Financial with their deep connectivity into one of our target vertical markets. They will support our strategy to provide the leading solutions for Banking and Capital Markets institutions. This complements the breadth of sector access facilitated by our existing investors.”

“Big data analytics is highly topical for many industries in today’s world with banking and financial services going through ground-breaking times” said Mark Whitcroft, Founding Partner at Illuminate Financial Management. “A major challenge for any company operating in any highly regulated industry is how to balance the benefits gained from data insights whilst conforming to data regulatory and policy in protecting customer data. Privitar's solution enables companies to balance applying data science techniques whilst addressing data governance requirements. Illuminate Financial is excited to be backing this promising London-based software company and their world-class team.”