Giri Sreenivas and Dirk Sigurdson already launched and sold one security company. Now they’ve raised a sizable seed investment round from top venture firms for another security-related startup.
The Seattle-area entrepreneurs today announced a $4 million seed round led by Instacart and Coinbase investor Initialized Capital, with participation from Lemnos Labs, Liquid 2 Ventures, CrunchFund, and Fuel Capital. Angel investors Steve Jang, Lee Linden, and Geoff Entress also invested.
The new Bellevue, Wash.-based company is called Privacy Labs. The co-founders are staying quiet in regard to details about what exactly they are building and the technology that powers the product. But the general idea is to help everyday users “take control of their data” and to “decentralize” the internet.
“We are excited to bring our unique mix of experiences developing security products and consumer products to bear on the most important and challenging consumer privacy and security problems we all face today,” Sreenivas told GeekWire.
Here’s a bit more from the company’s press release:
As mobile device usage has exploded, consumers have wanted ease and access to their data at their fingertips. Technology companies defaulted to centralized services running in the cloud as the easiest way to meet this need. As a result, consumers have unknowingly traded the privacy and security of their data for access to these free services. Subsequent leaks and reporting have made it clear that entrusting third parties with sensitive personal data opens consumers to the risk of hacking and government surveillance overreach.
Here’s a description from the company’s website:
Our purpose is to help people be free, private and secure online. The last two major computing revolutions brought us desktops on every desk and a mobile phone in every pocket. We are on the verge of a new computing revolution – one that puts the user and their data first by decentralizing the net….