Creator Of Homomorphic Encryption Raises $16M.

The omnipresence of APIs and cloud-based solutions have introduced many interesting ways to create a service by businesses without building every part. This has simultaneously increased risks of cyber attacks and in effect moving the data and using it in multiple places in multiple ways. Using homomorphic encryption, the startup Duality has built a robust platform to make the application secure. Finally, it has announced the funding it has received showing it as a sign of market demand and an opportunity for cybersecurity. 

What is homomorphic encryption?

It is a technique that encrypts the data of an organization so that it stays encrypted even as the company collaborates with third parties that also process the data. Duality, making use of this technology has been successful in raising $16 million in funding. 

The partners in crime

Being led by Intel Capital, the Series A round has seen equal participation from Hearst Ventures and Team8 of which Team8 is an Israeli cybersecurity incubator keen on pairing with Intel and considering it a worthy partner along with a long list of backers including Microsoft, Walmart, Eric Schmidt, and Accenture to name a few.

Intel comes as a strategic backer as the two worked together to expose the vulnerabilities of AI workloads utilizing homomorphic encryption on Intel platforms to minimize data exposure. The use of Intel reaches a wide range of use cases including cloud services and gigantic hardware companies.

The extent of partnership with Duality

Duality has signed to work with other companies spanning across the financial markets, healthcare, and insurance, although it is still kept confidential because of NDAs. The one customer it has named is CDA, the Cyber Defense Alliance, a cross-bank security alliance in the U.K. The other one mentioned is Hearst.

Hearst speaks 

Kenneth Bronfin, senior managing director of Hearst Ventures states that “ being a leading global, diversified media, information and services company catering to 360 businesses across industries, we are well aware of the importance of data and data collaboration across many market segments.”

“There is a constant transfer of sensitive data being generated by individuals and businesses which implies there is a need for a technology to protect such data while still allowing extracting insights. Duality’s mission and the ability to deliver complex technology to real-world use cases and applications makes us excited over all the matter,” he adds. 

The current situation

A new crop of cybersecurity startups and other large companies are emerging who are keen on building solutions based on homomorphic encryption. A few of them to be named are Enveil, CryptoNext Security and IBM. Duality has an upper hand over others as Shafi Goldwasser, one of its co-founders, won the Turing Award for her enormous work on cryptographic algorithms forming the basis of homomorphic encryption.

It comes with a lot of high level math and working theoretically, meaning the work Duality has carried out - led by other co-founders Alon Kaufman, Rina Shainski, Vinod Vaikuntanathan, and Kurt Rohloff, all having a long list of cybersecurity and data science credentials - has been involved in making the algorithm commercially viable and used by businesses far and near.

Why do we trust Duality?

As there is still a lot of time and computing energy invested to process encrypted data, the idea behind Duality is that it is being used on the sensitive information of each company. While some funding goes to R&D, experts are watching closely how algorithms can improve the present condition and extend the kind of encryption in a practical way to wider data sets.

“In the future of computation stack, the ability to secure data during analysis is a critical component especially in the context of AI. Intel Capital has been following it closely and we are excited to see the extent of secure computing and homomorphic encryption becoming practical with being broadly applicable,” says Anthony Lin, vice president, and senior managing director of Intel Capital. “Privacy preservation in AI and ML that represents a huge market need is our target and investing in Duality is due to the unique founding team and world-class expertise in advanced cryptography and data science,” he adds.

What is the promise of the future?

Duality holds the key to the robust technology of the future. It is sure to break the boundaries and making sure the far reach helps companies across the various industries get the help of homomorphic encryption. Cryptography is taking the industries to the next higher level.