Tenchi Security raises a US$3.3MM seed round to improve transparency and security in the cloud
Tenchi Security, a startup that specializes in cloud security, has just raised a seed round of US$ 3.3 million. The new investment was led by MAYA Capital with participation from Global Founders Capital (GFC), Kinea (part of the Itaú group) and ONEVC.
Founded in October 2019, the company is already a reference in cloud security in Brazil. Its customer base includes enterprises such as Cielo, XP Investimentos, BTG Pactual, B3 and Telefónica. Previously, the company used capital from the founders and angel investors.
“The international track record of Tenchi Security’s entrepreneurs caught our attention,” says Lara Lemann, Co-founder of MAYA Capital. “Furthermore, the company’s strategy has a very strong combination of information security and cloud computing, markets with high growth rates and many opportunities for innovation. It is a very good fit to our investment portfolio.”
This perception is confirmed by an analysis by Gartner, which in April this year predicted that global investments in cloud computing will grow 21% in 2021. Traditional companies are migrating rapidly to the cloud. New companies are mostly created entirely in the cloud.
However, such a significant shift in technology paradigm brings its own challenges – the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report shows that 73% of incidents analyzed involved at least one cloud asset, up from 27% last year.
Compounding all of this, regulators are increasingly holding organizations responsible for the security of companies with which they share sensitive data. This is enshrined in regulatory requirements such as the GDPR, regulation 4,893 of the Central Bank of Brazil, open banking standards and the PCI DSS.
Tenchi Security’s platform provides complete monitoring of the security maturity of cloud environments of third parties such as service providers, business partners, or sales channels. It provides, in a matter of minutes, an overview of the security of the entire ecosystem organizations are a part of. The funds raised in this round will be invested in improving the SaaS solution and in growing the team.
In order to achieve all of this, the startup is restructuring its leadership. Felipe Bouças assumes the role of CEO of the company. Alexandre Sieira migrates to the role of CTO, re-establishing a long partnership they had as co-founders of successful startups CIPHER and Niddel. Dani Dilkin remains responsible for sales and professional services.
“I’m very happy with Felipe’s return to the team, which will allow me to focus on the product evolution”, says Alexandre Sieira. “We have capital, traction and a well-defined roadmap for a product that will be competitive and innovative globally. Now the focus is on execution.”
Felipe Bouças is a senior executive and successful entrepreneur with over 25 years of combined experience the global information security market. Up until recently he was Global Director of Verizon’s Security Products and Services team. He is also an investor in security startups, and serves as a mentor at Alchemist, Silicon Valley’s leading B2B startup accelerator.
“We have a fantastic team, a group of top-tier institutional investors, and we are ready to execute an ambitious and disruptive thesis,” says Felipe Bouças. “I was already extremely excited as an investor, so acting as chief executive makes the journey even more fun”.
About Tenchi Security
Tenchi Security is a Brazilian startup specializing in cloud environment security founded in October 2019 by Felipe Bouças, Alexandre Sieira and Dani Dilkin. Its mission is to implement a platform to reduce information asymmetry on security and compliance risks in enterprise ecosystems in a cooperative and scalable way. Learn more at tenchisecurity.com, pr@tenchisecurity.com.br.
About MAYA Capital
MAYA Capital is an early-stage fund that supports bold leaders who are catalyzing change in Latin America. We back entrepreneurs who dream bigger and work harder to solve Latin America’s most relevant problems. We support them with smart capital and best-in-class advisory. To learn more, visit maya.capital.
About Global Founders Capital (GFC)
We are a global seed and growth investor that empowers gifted entrepreneurs. To learn more, visit globalfounderscapital.com.
About Kinea
Kinea Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on investments in the financial services and technology space. The new fund is part of one of the main alternative investment managers in Brazil, Kinea Investimentos, which was founded in 2007 in a partnership with Itaú Unibanco, and currently has US$13 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit kinea.com.br.
About ONEVC
ONEVC is a Silicon Valley and Brazil-based early stage Venture Capital firm. To learn more, visit onevc.vc.
