Editor's note: This is the first of a weekly feature of Bay Area Inno that looks at companies in the region that have recently raised Series A funding. Look for this every Thursday. And on Tuesdays, Early Money does a wrap-up of recent seed funding rounds.
Data breaches and privacy incidents are a major concern for businesses that collect digital information from customers.
A Mountain View-based startup that focuses on that problem, Relyance AI Inc., came out of stealth Wednesday with $30 million in seed and Series A funding from some top venture investors.
It was co-founded by data-protection attorney Leila R. Golchehreh and machine-learning expert Abhi Sharma, who have been longtime friends. Golchehreh previously led data protection and compliance at Workday and Adaptive Insights. Sharma is a machine learning expert who was a founding member of Foghorn Systems team and a platform engineer at AppDynamics.
Relyance AI's platform is designed to help organizations manage privacy compliance and data protection. It uses machine learning to determine an organization’s contractual and legal requirements along with the actual operational reality of the data it is processing down to the source code. The startup said this gives data protection teams the visibility and insight they need to take action on privacy issues in real-time.
John Vrionis, the co-founder and managing partner of Unusual Ventures, led the startup's seed round and has been on the board since it was founded last year. Jyoti Bansal of Unusual Ventures, the founder of AppDynamics, Harness and Traceable has joined the company’s board of directors after the firm co-led the Series A round with Menlo Ventures. Menlo partner Matt Murphy has joined the board as an observer.
Early customers include Dialpad, Patreon, Samsara, ThriveTRM and True.
“Relyance AI answers a problem the whole privacy industry is facing: It’s six o’clock — do you know where your data is? For most companies, the answer is really — no,” Preston Thomas, privacy and compliance counsel at Dialpad, said in Wednesday's funding announcement.
Here are more Bay Area companies that disclosed Series A rounds in the past week, ranked from biggest-to-smallest amount of funding:
- EnerVenue Inc., Fremont, $100 million: Schlumberger led the Series A funding of this startup that is developing a new type of metal-hydrogen battery. Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Stanford University also invested.
- Versanis Bio Inc., Oakland, $70 million: Atlas Venture and Medicxi led the Series A funding of this developer of treatments for obesity. Aditum Bio also participated.
- Constructor.io Inc., San Francisco, $55 million: Silversmith Capital Partners led the Series A funding of this e-Commerce search and product discovery software startup.
- Walking Fish Therapeutics Inc., South San Francisco, $50 million: Emerson Collective, Illumina Ventures and Quan Capital invested in the Series A round for this developer of cell-based treatments for cancer and other diseases.
- Aviva Technology Inc., San Jose, $26.5 million: Marvell Technology Group founders Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai led the Series A round for this maker of in-vehicle chips designed to connect and move large amounts of data from automobiles.
- Ellipsis Health Inc., San Francisco, $26 million: SJF Ventures led the Series A round for this developer of a voice app designed to help manage depression and anxiety.
- Kevala Inc., San Francisco, $21 million: C5 Capital and Thin Line Capital led the Series A round for this provider of data analysis software for energy grid companies.
- Patch Technologies Inc., San Francisco, $20.8 million: Coatue Management led the Series A funding of this carbon offsetting startup. Andreessen Horowitz, VersionOne and Pale Blue Dot also invested.
- Peach Finance Inc., Oakland, $20 million: Canapi Ventures led the Series A funding of this lending software startup. SciFi VC, Caffeinated Capital, Nyca Partners and Moore Specialty Credit also participated.
- Syndicate Inc., Mountain View, $20 million: Andreessen Horowitz led the Series A funding of this cryptocurrency startup that's offering a service that allows people to form online investment groups for less than $10 in less than a minute. Bill Ackman's Table Management, Coinbase Ventures, Sound Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Alexis Ohanian and Snoop Dogg also invested.
- Juno Residential Inc., San Francisco, $20 million: Comcast Ventures, Khosla Ventures and RET Ventures co-led the Series A round for this builder of apartment housing.
- The Fin Exploration Corp., San Francisco, $20 million: Coatue Management led the Series A funding of this provider of software that monitors and offers advice on employee workflows. First Round Capital, Accel and Kleiner Perkins also invested.
- Borneo, San Francisco, $15.5 million: Vulcan Ventures led the Series A funding of this provider of data security and privacy software. Prosus Ventures, Lytical Ventures and Wavemaker Partners also invested.
- Novi Connect Inc., Larkspur, $10.3 million: Greylock Partners led the Series A round for this developer of a business-to-business marketplace for sustainable products. Defy Partners, Thomas Layton and Yannis Skoufalos also participated.
- TomoCredit Inc., San Francisco, $10 million: Kapor Capital and KB Investment led the Series A funding of this provider of a credit card for first-time borrowers.
- EveryDay Labs Inc., Redwood City, $8 million: Rethink Impact led the Series A round for the provider of a software-based service designed to reduce student absenteeism. Reach Capital, Gary Community Ventures, City Light Capital, RedHouse Education, Edovate Capital, Bonsal Capital and Copper Wire Ventures also invested.
