What is DataGrail
DataGrail is a startup that helps customers understand where their data lives to help comply with a growing body of privacy regulations. It has recently announced a $30 million Series B.
The round was led by Felicis Ventures with help from Basis Set Ventures, Operator Collective, and previous investors. One of the interesting aspects of this round was the participation from several strategic investors including HubSpot, Okta, and Next47, the venture firm backed by Siemens.
What attracted so many investors
The fact that DataGrail helps organizations find data by building connectors to popular applications and then helps to ensure that they comply with customer privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and similar laws are what could’ve led to this level of investor interest.
“DataGrail is the first integrated solution with over 900 integrations (up from 180 in 2019) to different apps and infrastructure platforms that allow the product to detect when new apps or new infrastructure platforms are added, and then also perform automated data discovery across those applications,” company CEO and co-founder Daniel Barber explained to me. This helps users find customer data wherever it lives and enables them to comply with legal requirements to manage and protect that data.
Testimonials
A general partner at lead investors Felicis Ventures, Victoria Treyger says that one of the things that attracted her to DataGrail was that she had to help implement GDPR regulations at a previous venture and felt the pain first hand. She said that her firm tends to look for startups in large markets where the product or service being offered is a critical need, rather than an option, and she believes that DataGrail is an example of that.
I liked the fact that privacy management is such a hard problem, and it is not optional. As a business, you have to manage privacy requests, which you may do manually or you may do it with a solution like DataGrail
Treyger
HubSpot’s SVP of corporate and business development, Andrew Lindsay says, his company is both a customer and an investor because DataGrail is helping HubSpot customers navigate the complexity of privacy regulation. “DataGrail’s unique ecosystem approach, where they are integrating with key SAAS and business applications is an easy way for many of our joint customers to protect their customers’ privacy,” Lindsay said.
The company has 40 employees today with plans to grow to 90 or 100 by the end of this year. A thing worth noting is that Treyger is joining the Board, which already has 3 other women. That shows a commitment to gender diversity at the board level that is not typical for startups.
