Hasso Plattner Ventures Leads $15M Strategic Investment in Vera

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - May 09, 2017) - Vera (vera.com), the pioneer in data-centric security enabling businesses of all types and sizes to secure, track and share any type of data, today announced a $15 million strategic investment led by Hasso Plattner Ventures (HP-Ventures), the venture capital firm founded by of SAP co-founder and Chairman, Hasso Plattner. HP-Ventures is joined by existing investors Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Clear Venture Partners, Amplify Partners, Capital One Ventures and Leslie Ventures who all participated in this strategic financing. This latest investment brings Vera's total capital raised to over $50 million. Vera is also announcing the addition of Clear Venture Partners' co-founder and General Partner Chris Rust to its board of directors.

"Hasso Plattner Ventures has a highly curated, global portfolio of game-changing companies, but our investment in Vera is unique in that it marks our fund's first cybersecurity investment," said Yair Re'em, General Partner of Hasso Plattner Ventures. "The crumbling state of enterprise security has clearly demonstrated the need for a fundamental paradigm shift in cybersecurity. Severe breaches are reported on a daily basis, causing businesses massive loss of revenue and trust. Vera's incredible momentum and hyper-growth in markets large and small is testament to the brilliance and power of Vera's innovative approach to securing information of all types and is the only solution that can help protect and control data after a breach has happened."

Vera's data-centric security solution accelerates enterprises' ability to comply with a complex web of state, federal, and international regulations, including the EU's impending General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Gartner predicts that by the end of 2018, over 50% of companies affected by the GDPR will not be in full compliance with its requirements. Vera enables these organizations to fully automate data security, encryption, control, and compliance with these regulations. Vera provides the 360-degree audit trail and chain of custody necessary for global risk and compliance officers to precisely control what users can and cannot do with enterprise data while simultaneously preserving their privacy, across all applications, devices, and platforms.

"Hasso Plattner is an undisputed and unmatched titan in the software world, and we're beyond humbled and honored that his venture arm would preemptively and proactively choose to invest in Vera at a time when we are already flush with capital. HP-Venture's global reach will undoubtedly help us accelerate our expansion into multi-national and European markets," said Ajay Arora, CEO and co-founder of Vera. "As if the news could possibly get any better, we are also thrilled to have Chris Rust of Clear Venture Partners officially join our board of directors. Chris' ongoing and tireless commitment and leadership has helped our team scale and succeed since day one."

"The way businesses and individuals protect critical data has to change dramatically. Vera is unmatched in meeting this widespread pressing need," said Chris Rust, founder and general partner of Clear Ventures. "Their field proven product is a great leap forward versus other approaches, and is safeguarding 10s of millions of files every day. Vera's extreme ease of use and scalability is validated by a rapidly growing global customer base that includes some of the world's most valuable and respected enterprises. The enterprise network perimeter has collapsed and those clinging to solutions trying to save or resurrect it are fighting a battle long since lost. Vera is the driving force behind a positive and profound shift away from perimeter-based security and towards a more flexible and reliable data-centric model. Clear Ventures is delighted to be a founding investor in Vera. This strong financing will provide additional resources for the fine Vera team to continue to delight their customers."

As of April 2017, Vera has realized over 400% revenue growth since its public launch in mid-2015 and significantly increased its Fortune 100 customer base alone by 5x. Amongst the numerous and distinguished industry awards it has won, Vera has been recognized as a 2017 SC Trust Award Winner for Best Cloud Computing Security and successfully launched its latest product Vera for Mail, an enterprise-grade security solution that lets businesses seamlessly secure, track, and revoke access to any email they send, in February 2017.

About Vera
Vera is a next-generation data security company that enables businesses of all sizes to secure, track, and share any kind of data, no matter where it's stored or how it's shared. With robust policy enforcement, strong encryption, and strict access controls, Vera's data-centric security solution enables employees to collaborate freely while ensuring the highest levels of security, visibility, and control. For more information, visit www.vera.com

About Hasso Plattner Ventures
Hasso Plattner Ventures is the venture capital firm founded by Prof. Dr. h.c. Hasso Plattner, co-founder and Chairman of SAP. With AUM of $400 million, Hasso Plattner Ventures invests in fast-growing, enterprise and infrastructure software companies in Europe and the US. The firm was founded in 2005 and is based in Potsdam, Germany. For more information, visit http://hp-ventures.com/

Yair Re'em has lead Hasso Plattner Ventures' strategic investments for the last seven years and currently serves as the fund's General Partner.

About Clear Ventures
With $120 million of capital from a world-class investor base, Clear is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that is purpose-built to help startup teams win in business technology and services. Founded by veteran company builders and venture investors Chris Rust and Rajeev Madhavan, formerly of Sequoia Capital and USVP and founders of four successful companies, Clear provides early capital, connections, and company-building insights to bold startup teams so their ideas can grow into market-leading companies. For more information, visit http://clear.ventures/

Prior to founding Clear, Chris Rust spent 14 years as an early stage technology investor at Sequoia Capital and U.S. Venture Partners. As an active member of Vera's board of directors, Rust will help guide the company towards its mission to become the trusted standard for securing and sharing business information.