ShardSecure™ announces seed funding; Tom Noonan joins advisory board

ShardSecure™, the data protection company whose Microshard™ technology helps organizations accelerate cloud adoption by mitigating cloud misconfiguration and data security risks, announced today that it has secured seed funding in a round led by SineWave Ventures, with participation from cybersecurity industry luminary Tom Noonan, 500 Startups, CTM Insights, and The Fund. Noonan has also joined the company’s Advisory Board.

​ShardSecure’s patent-pending Microshard technology breaks sensitive data into tiny fragments that are distributed across multiple clouds and poisoned with false shards, making it nearly impossible for hackers to reassemble.

By drastically reducing sensitivity of data, ShardSecure helps customers in regulated industries lower compliance costs and complexity, enabling even the most security-conscious to accelerate cloud adoption.

​SineWave is very excited to add ShardSecure to our portfolio. Their Microshard technology provides excellent data protection. It is a practical solution that is particularly useful to companies that want to retain control of their data when moving to the cloud, or to companies burdened by expensive data oversight. We see it filling an important gap in the data security ecosystem.

Pat Muoio, General Partner at SineWave Ventures

Muoio, who is General Partner at SineWave Ventures and former Chief of the National Security Agency’s Trusted Systems Research Group, will join ShardSecure’s Board of Directors as a Board Observer.

Cloud-related data breaches such as this summer’s Capital One hack confirm that cloud misconfiguration risks remain the top concern for major enterprises in their cloud migration journey.

ShardSecure’s Microshard data protection technology significantly mitigates cloud misconfiguration risks and allows customers to avoid the financial and reputational damages caused by data breaches in the cloud. We’re thrilled to have the backing of SineWave and other co-investors in bringing ShardSecure’s Microshard technology to market in 2020. We are also very privileged to have the confidence of long-time security industry leader Tom Noonan personally investing in ShardSecure and joining our Advisory Board.

ShardSecure CEO & Co-Founder, Bob Lam

​As the only data protection provider capable of fragmenting data into single digit bytes without sacrificing performance, ShardSecure has been garnering plenty of attention in the startup world. The company recently beat out over 70 other early stage companies to win the “Judges’ Favorite Startup” award at the AWS Winning Pitch Deck competition in New York City.

As the inventor of Microsharding data, CTM is thrilled to participate in this funding round [said Lou Steinberg, Managing Partner at CTM Insights, the security research lab and studio that spun out ShardSecure last year]. As the former CTO at TD Ameritrade, I experienced the need for reducing data sensitivity first hand along with the security and compliance benefits it brings. It’s exciting to see the concept come to market.

Lou Steinberg, Managing Partner at CTM Insights

“I am proud to have the backing of renowned senior business and technology leaders like Tom, Lou and Pat, as we bring ShardSecure’s data protection vision to market and help enterprise and government customers securely embrace the cloud,” added Lam.

The funds raised in this round will be used to ramp up product development for Microshard data protection technology and to establish initial sales and marketing efforts. ShardSecure is currently ​working with select early adopter “design partners” including Fortune 500 organizations in healthcare and financial services. The product will become generally available in the first half of 2020.