Consumer-focused privacy company Cloaked raises $375 million as it expands into enterprises

Consumer-facing security tools often focus on one type of approach, such as password protection, virtual private networks (VPNs), or identity management. This forces people to use multiple tools to keep their data private. Covered with a cloaka company that instead offers a range of security and privacy solutions, announced Thursday that it has secured $375 million in Series B and growth funding to expand its consumer offerings and move into the enterprise market.

The company was founded by brothers Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar in 2020, and initially offered users Ability to create multiple identities with data such as emails, phone numbers and passwords To log in to various services without providing their actual data. Over the years, Cloaked has introduced other services such as data removal, identity theft insurance, a virtual private network (VPN), and dark web monitoring. Last year, that Introduce AI-powered call screening.

Now, Cloaked sees an opportunity to protect consumers in a world where hackers or fraudsters can use AI to get data or money in new ways.

“We’ve seen AI outperform humans in compromising individuals. We look at this as an issue around personal safety, family safety and financial fraud. We’re also seeing (the spread of AI) around fraud, spam and phishing. So far in this era it’s about surveillance, how do you find a solution that fits these different aspects, and we’re winning in that category on the consumer side,” said the company’s CEO, Arjun Bhatnagar.

The startup intends to expand its AI-powered scanning protection to text messaging, email, and browsing this year. It’s also testing an AI agent that can take actions on your behalf, such as changing the password for a service whose data has been compromised. Bhatnagar said the plan aims to use artificial intelligence in a secure manner and not transfer sensitive information to the cloud.

The company told TechCrunch that it saw 10x growth last year and now has more than 350,000 paying customers. It also protected 10 million identities and helped users clean over a billion records from data broker sites. Bhatnagar noted that since the call screening feature was launched last year, the app has processed more than 50 million fraudulent or unwanted phone calls.

Cloaked is also now rolling out to the enterprise, offering employees some of the same protections as its consumer products, including identity and password management. This product provides alerts to employees about potential fraud. In addition, company CISOs can see the risk level of individuals and verify aggregated data for records that have been cleaned or fraud operations stopped. They can see potential fraud or data that could affect the company’s business.

The startup has approximately 70 employees and aims to expand the team in different areas such as product, engineering, enterprise sales and international expansion.

Cloaked competes with the likes of 1Password, GuardioFirefox, Proton, and Mozilla. The company even has some overlapping products with one of its investors, DuckDuckGo, offering just that VPN and identity theft protection.

The latest round was led by General Catalyst and Liberty City Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital, Human Capital, Marquee Ventures, Fifth Growth Fund, NFL Players Association, LG Technology Ventures, Assurant Ventures, and DuckDuckGo. General Catalyst also provided growth financing through its Customer Value Fund, which lends money to startups without diluting equity to stimulate customer acquisition. The startup did not disclose the valuation or the split between equity and growth funding.

Before that, Cloaked had been raised $29 million in funding from investorsincluding Lux Capital, Human Capital, and General Catalyst.

Mark Crane, partner at General Catalyst, said the venture has invested in the startup in all rounds but led the round for the first time. He said that Cloaked’s range of security and privacy offerings suits a wide range of consumers.

Crane believes Cloaked has the right product to protect people and organizations in the new AI-driven internet and become a “housekeeping stamp of approval” for users in a world where there are many AI agents.

“In terms of the product, they’ve built a lot of surface area for the consumer and what they want to be able to use for privacy,” he told TechCrunch over a phone call. “Some people want to use everything out of the box, some people want to use smaller pieces. And the beauty of Cloaked is that any consumer, anything they care about, can engage with it, and they can get the solution they want and need.”