PrivateCore Secures $2.25 Million in Seed Funding Led by Foundation Capital

PrivateCore, an early-stage private computing company, today announced that it has raised $2.25 million in seed funding from Foundation Capital. Building software solutions that address the privacy concerns surrounding public cloud computing infrastructure, PrivateCore will use the new funds to expand its core development team with top virtualization and security engineering talent.

"Our vision for PrivateCore is based on a different cloud computing model – one where cloud infrastructure can be leveraged without the need to delegate control over physical safeguards to service providers," said Oded Horovitz, CEO at PrivateCore. "Our technology solves the Infrastructure-as-a-Service privacy problem and will ultimately lead to the ‘Death of the Server Cage’. It is a very exciting time for us as we begin building out our development team with the best virtualization and security experts interested in this kind of challenging engineering opportunity."

One of the most significant challenges for businesses leveraging cloud computing infrastructure is losing control over the physical ownership of bare compute, networking and storage resources. When businesses lack physical ownership and controls, they must rely on their service providers to protect their data and computation. If additional protection is needed, they are forced to enter into costly agreements with their providers to help ensure proper physical safeguards are implemented, such as server cages, closed-circuit TV, man traps, biometrics, and staff background checks.

With its unique software-based protection approach, PrivateCore removes privacy concerns for data processed in a location that cannot be physically secured by the owner of the data. PrivateCore’s software provides a secure hypervisor that enables the private execution of virtual machines. This approach only allows the real owner of the virtual machine to access the data inside – and only with the right credentials (keys). PrivateCore’s technology prevents service provider staff that have physical ownership of the server from bypassing this protection and from gaining access to the owner’s data without having the owner’s keys.

PrivateCore’s early trial users include large financial institutions and a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) funded by the US government.

"PrivateCore has invented a fundamental advance in virtualization," said Ashmeet Sidana, general partner, Foundation Capital. "We are excited with the excellent team Oded is assembling and to support him as the founding investor."

PrivateCore’s founders, Oded Horovitz and Dr. Stephen Weis, are information security veterans with strong backgrounds in virtualization and cryptography. Horovitz was previously a senior staff engineer at VMware, where he developed the vShield and VMSafe security products. Weis holds a Ph.D. in cryptography from MIT and while at Google, designed the company’s two-step verification system. PrivateCore is also actively advised by former VMware principal engineer, Dr. Carl Waldspurger.