Arlington-based WireWheel, a software-as-a-service platform that modernizes global data privacy, has secured $10 million in Series A funding. The new round was led by New Enterprise Associates and PSP Growth, and joined by existing and new investors Grotech Ventures, Sands Capital and Revolution Capital’s Rise of the Rest Fund.
The round will be used to further innovate on product capabilities, expand sales and marketing efforts and launch a partner program, the company said in a statement. As part of the investment, Dayna Grayson of NEA and Michael Oleshansky of PSP will join WireWheel’s board of directors.
WireWheel’s total capital raised to-date now stands at $13 million.
The startup uses human-assisted machine learning and cloud technology to help companies comply more quickly and efficiently with privacy regulations around the world, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the new California Consumer Privacy Act.
WireWheel has a rapidly growing roster of customers, including Blackboard and Under Armor. It was also chosen to participate in the Tandem Product Academy’s upcoming first cohort.
CEO Justin Antonipillai founded the company in late 2016, after leading the Economic and Statistics Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Obama. Among other things, Antonipillai led the American negotiating team in reaching the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework with Europe. He also led extensive dialogues with European regulators on GDPR as it was being considered for approval.
“Privacy protection is a key trust, customer, and compliance matter, and we’re just scratching the surface of how powerful technology can be to help protect data privacy,” he said in a statement.
Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution, said the startup’s potential is based in good tech and good timing:
“WireWheel is leveraging local expertise in policy, especially privacy and data protection, and combining that with know-how on databases, machine learning and technical infrastructure. We are excited about the WireWheel product and are proud to support them as they take on data privacy and data protection challenges.”
