Our Investment in Transcend

Today we’re announcing our latest Seed round in the fiercely talented team at Transcend, a data privacy infrastructure company.

Companies globally are figuring out what it means to build for today’s privacy-conscious environment—and how developers, IT and legal navigate these complex issues while moving fast and delivering great experiences. Because if today’s public scrutiny is any measure, tomorrow’s startups face many data management and workflow challenges if they’re to stay compliant with forthcoming laws. We hear this from the fastest growing B2C companies, and based on Transcend’s customer list, large incumbents have woken up too.

‍

And not a moment too soon. The atmospheric pressure around data privacy has been building for years. With efforts in Europe (GDPR) and California (CCPA) solidified, and laws in India and Japan gaining momentum, we’re entering an era where technology companies have to take a user’s home laws into careful consideration: where is this user logging in? What’s acceptable use for the data we have on them? How do we handle data service requests, or the “right to be forgotten”? How can our developers move fast, while staying compliant?

Building that kind of control is challenging. But great product and marketing teams see that trust will play an enormous role in brand building and are eager for help. Transcend has set out to help every product and marketing team meet modern privacy needs without slowing them down.

We’re in a new era of data privacy. Ben, Mike and Faris are the sort of thoughtful, determined entrepreneurs you’d want tackling such a thorny issue. We’re excited to lead their Seed, alongside our friends at South Park Commons, and support their mission of putting data rights back in the hands of all end users.