Protectig digital information everywhere

“Data security is a huge issue for companies of all sizes and it’s clear that current strategies aren’t working. The conflict between ensuring strong levels of security while preserving usability remains largely unsolved for organizations. The problem is only getting worse as the number of data loss vectors in the enterprise are only accelerating with the mainstream use of cloud services and smart mobile devices,” said Carla Arend, program director, IDC. “Vera aims to take a different approach to tackling data protection across the enterprise by balancing data security; usability and user choice; and providing remote policy enforcement and control to the IT department.”

Vera confronts the new reality of the borderless enterprise head-on with a solution built to protect data with military-grade encryption, anywhere, on any device, without changing how people work. Vera seamlessly embeds strong data security with services users love, such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and Microsoft, so there’s no disruption to existing habits. In addition, Vera gives complete control of data at all times no matter where it is, while also ensuring data can be revoked, changed, or time-bombed in real-time through user or company-managed policies. Vera’s, instantly deployable, zero-touch approach does this without storing files, data, or encryption keys, and never proxies data in any way.

Vera is seeing strong momentum with a rapidly growing customer base across several verticals, including financial services, HR and recruiting, hi-tech, private equity and non-profit. Vera customers include SterlingBackcheck, Deerfield Management, Dana Foundation, Jivaro Professional Headhunters, K1, Gainsight and Tremblant Capital Group.

“Vera’s real value for us is peace of mind and knowing our intellectual property is being seen only by those that we intend to see it. If another recruiter were to get a hold of our resumes or information on a stealth client, it would mean a potential loss in revenue,” said Ron Harrison, CEO of Jivaro Professional Headhunters, a leading staffing and technology executive search firm. “Vera is the only solution that allows us to directly attach specific security rules and policies on the data itself. It gives our security administrators the power to control access to data no matter where it goes, but doesn't change the way our clients receive information from us. Plus, we were up and running and protecting data within minutes.”

Vera was co-founded by Ajay Arora and CTO Prakash Linga in early 2014. Arora and Linga had previously co-founded RAPsphere, an innovative mobile security company acquired by AppSense in 2012. Vera announced $14 million in Series A and the hiring of Robin Daniels as CMO in November 2014. Daniels joined Vera from Box where he was head of enterprise marketing. Vera also added several industry luminaries as company advisors, including Alan Cohen, chief commercial officer of security platform Illumio, and Martin Brodbeck, CTO of SterlingBackcheck and former head of technology at Pearson PLC and Pfizer.

“Vera approaches data security with the mindset that information is bound to travel beyond firewalls and endpoints in today’s age of ubiquitous information-sharing and collaboration. We are introducing epic and truly transformative offerings that protect all forms of corporate and user data, regardless of how long it’s online, where it travels or what platform hosts it,” said Ajay Arora, CEO of Vera. “We’re empowering companies to uphold the integrity of data, even if it falls into the wrong hands. Expect to see new and innovative solutions from us in the coming months that expand our security approach to other ways people share and work.”

With its launch, Vera is also announcing two new additions to the team: Will Saso, vice president of sales, and Ian McWilton, vice president of customer success. Saso previously served as vice president of sales at Attensity and was central to strategic expansion throughout North America. McWilton brings 15 years of scaling high-performing engineering and customer-facing teams; previously serving as chief architect at MokaFive. At Vera, Saso and McWilton will co-lead customer acquisition, client relationship management and global sales growth efforts.

Vera recently changed its name and moved to Palo Alto, CA to make room for growing engineering, operations, sales and marketing teams and continues to actively hire. The company also has a growing research and development teams based in India.