“Many businesses’ data systems are broken,” says Viraj Phanse, CEO and co-founder of start-up Blockfenders, which is today announcing a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round for a solution it thinks will help. “The process of converting data into real utility is far too difficult and the time to value is far too long.”
It’s a complaint for our time. The promise of the data revolution is that it brings science to business decisions that once depended on gut instinct. If all your decisions are informed by data science and analytics, you’ll steal a march on competitors that don’t have access to this insight.
Fine in theory. But the practical challenges of unlocking that insight by sharing data are far tougher than is often realised. Research from market analyst Gartner suggests less than 5% of data sharing programs will correctly identify trusted data and locate trusted data sources.
Even inside their own enterprises, businesses are struggling. Enabling data sharing requires coding expertise that is in short supply at most organisations. Mounting privacy concerns means functions often feel uncomfortable sharing data with one another. The security team worries about leaving the business vulnerable to a damaging cyber attack. “There is no trust in the data,” Phanse warns.
Blockfenders’ solution to this problem is a data sharing platform that doesn’t require users to have any coding knowledge, and which uses blockchain technology to protect privacy and security. It is essentially a piece of software that sits in the middle of data requests from one part of the enterprise to another – or even to third parties with data to share.
To secure data from other parties, a business user simply has to log into the Blockfenders platform and put in their request. If the request is approved, the transfer than takes place automatically using the blockchain. The idea is to automate data workflows and support transparent data agreements.
It’s an elegant solution to a problem that has frustrated many businesses, argues Phanse. “Because of failing data sharing methods that result in increasing data liabilities, enterprises are unable to unlock the true potential of data and maximise its business value,” he says. “Consequently, zettabytes of enterprise data is locked, siloed and kept inaccessible; in turn, that leads to failed digital transformation initiatives.”
Phanse’s co-founder Niranjan Ingale claims using the system is as easy as sharing photos by phone. “We are democratising data sharing by enabling business, research and non-technical folks to share data from their own environment without writing any code or worrying about privacy, security and implementation,” he says. “Organisations can easily establish a single source of truth of data and share data in a fine-grained manner while meeting stringent regulations and compliances.”
Viraj Phanse and Niranjan Ingale, co-founders of Blockfenders
They’re bold claims, but Blockfenders says pilot schemes with organisations in industries such as financial services and healthcare are providing crucial proof points as it moves towards a full-scale commercial product. Customers are beginning to realise a range of benefits, the founders say, including increased security, reduced workloads for their IT teams and, above all, improved ability to monetise their data.
Investors in the company are convinced it can deliver on that promise. Blockfenders has raised cash from a range of institutional and angel investors. At one of those backers, Blume Ventures, managing partner Sanjay Nath says the technology addresses a common pain point. “Enterprises today struggle with setting up and managing zero trust data-management platforms,” he says. “Blockfender’s unique positioning and inherent technology moat is well poised to solve for that.”
Rashid Mayes, principal software engineering manager at Microsoft and co-founder at Philanthropy.AI, who is an angel investor in the round, adds: “The platform enables organizations to break data silos and drive more value from data without sacrificing privacy, governance, or integrity.”
The challenge now for the business is to commercialise its technology. Since its launch just under a year ago, Blockfenders has grown to a team of 10, but the founders now intend to use their financing to expand the team and move beyond the pre-revenue stage of the business.
