Worldr, a zero-trust architecture for collaboration and communications platforms, has bagged $11m for its seed round.
Molten Ventures, which was formerly Draper Esprit, served as the lead investor. Other commitments came from existing investors IQ Capital and Playfair Capital.
It also saw support from specialist funds Pretiosum Ventures, Navigate VC and national security focused MD One Ventures. Notable angel investors also joined the seed round, including Blackstone senior MD Alex Walsh, former HSBC COO and CIO Hussain Baig, and Bain & Co ex-vice chairman John Theroux.
With the support of the capital, Worldr is pursuing its mission of creating a software-agnostic architecture that will sit across an organisation’s entire environment to maintain data sovereignty when shared across communication platforms. It supports data sovereignty for information shared via Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Outlook, Slack and more.
To support its growth ambitions, the RegTech company is expanding its presence in the US with a dedicated office in New York. This office will bolster its relationship with Microsoft, as part of the Independent Partner Network.
It is also growing its operations in the Middle East, with the creation of a dedicated team based in Dubai.
Worldr points to data that states companies experienced 31% more cyber attacks in 2021 compared to 2020. Coupled with the rising data localisation requirements amid global sanctions and an increased pressure on compliance and auditing from regulators, there is a greater need for data sovereignty.
This is where Worldr comes in. It has built an enterprise-level security and compliance architecture that stores all communications and files within the customer’s own environment. It bypasses a third-party provider’s own servers and allows organisations to retain full ownership of their enterprise data.
Worldr CEO Max Buchan said, “Data sovereignty has never been more important. The increase in cyberattacks, data localisation requirements, and scrutiny from regulators mean that it is no longer enough to blindly trust that collaboration platforms are keeping business communications secure and compliant. Companies rightfully want control of their data to protect themselves against operational, reputational and regulatory risk.
“This has not only fuelled demand for our zero trust architecture for Microsoft Teams, but we are also being challenged to apply this solution across an organisation’s entire software environment. This funding will be critical to helping us further this mission and scale to meet the demand.”
With the pandemic shifting a lot of companies towards digital communication channels, there has been a sudden need to incorporate compliant tools. Theta Lake, a fellow communication monitoring RegTech company, recently spoke to RegTech Analyst about how firms can ensure compliance with such digital communication tools.
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