Vera Security
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Vera is an enterprise data security and information rights management (IRM) platform that provides encryption, tracks and controls files and other digital information shared across users, devices, applications, and platforms in the enterprise. Vera also provides developers access to its IRM-as-a-service (IRMaaS) platform via a REST API and downloadable SDK. The platform serves both end users and IT, and gives admins tools to audit and control access rights to information inside and outside of the firewall.
History
Founded in early 2014, Vera’s stated mission is to become the trusted standard for securing and sharing information. Prior to founding Vera, Ajay Arora and Prakash Linga, respectively CEO and CTO, were the co-founders of RAPsphere, an innovative mobile security company that was acquired by AppSense in 2012. Knowing that the first generations of enterprise mobility management technologies were mostly perimeter-centric, Arora and Linga set out to take a more wide ranging approach for their next venture: assume there are no borders, and instead track and control data wherever it travels, and no matter where it’s stored.
In April 2015, Vera launched its first product, and in its first year of operations announced partnerships with Dropbox, Okta, and Centrify, and strategic integrations with Box, VMware, and Microsoft. The company focuses its sales and marketing efforts on large enterprises in the financial services, media & entertainment, manufacturing, and technology sectors.
Awards
Vera was nominated a Top 10 Finalist for the Innovation Sandbox competition at RSA Conference 2016, and CRN named Vera one of the “10 Coolest Security Startups of 2015”, for the company’s instantly deployable, zero-friction approach that secures files with strong encryption, global monitoring, and advanced data controls across any platform or device.
Funding
Vera is a privately funded company with $31million in venture financing. The company announced a $14 million Series A round in November 2014 (Ref), which included the hiring of Robin Daniels as CMO. In February 2016, Vera announced a $17 million Series B round, led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from existing investors, Battery Ventures, Amplify Partners, and other private investors. Roger Lee, General Partner of Battery Ventures and Stefan Dyckerhoff, Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures, serve on the company’s board of directors.
Overview
Through its content- and storage-agnostic platform, Vera secures any type of digital content, anywhere it’s stored. The product does not require end users to download proprietary agents or plug-ins to access secure data and offers native, integrations to common file sharing and enterprise platforms like Office 365, Box, Dropbox, and Okta.
Product Architecture
Vera’s product enables enterprises to achieve consistent and dependable control over data internally and beyond traditional on-premise and cloud services, ensuring critical business information remains secure, trackable, and under the full control of the enterprise at all times.
In March 2016, the company announced its software development kit (SDK), which allows developers to add encryption, tracking, policy enforcement, and access control into custom (and legacy) business applications. Developers can leverage the Vera platform directly to secure data through a set of RESTful APIs, and automatically secure content as it’s generated by applications or users within the enterprise.
A content-agnostic and storage-agnostic platform, Vera can secure any type of file across any device or application, without requiring end users to install additional software, agents or proprietary plug-ins to access secured information. The Vera cloud platform manages the encryption keys and controls for each customer but does not store or process customer content.
Through the Vera Dashboard, IT admins can enforce access policies (e.g., restrict copy/paste, printing, offline access, watermark views) that travel with the data anywhere it moves, and get full visibility over content access and activity, including how, when, where and how information is accessed in managed and unmanaged domains. An IT admin can also dynamically control and revoke access to data through the Vera Dashboard, oversee users and activity, define policies, and run audit reports on usage and unauthorized access attempts.