Peter Yared had an idea to address data localization three years ago. There were not many signs it would become a hot compliance topic, but Yared knew it was only a matter of time.
Back then, data localization laws primarily existed in authoritarian countries, and Yared's colleagues in Silicon Valley did not see the need to store information within a country's borders when one all-encompassing database would do the trick.
Fast-forward to 2019, and a swath of data localization laws have either passed or are in the midst of consideration. Yared spent those past three years turning his idea into InCountry, a solution designed to help organizations comply with those very requirements.
InCountry launched in May and is deployed in 65 countries. The startup announced July 18 that it had raised $15 million in Series A funding from Singapore's Arbor Ventures, Berlin-based Global Founders Capital, and Mubadala from Abu Dhabi. Arbor Ventures Co-Founder and Managing Partner Melissa Guzy will join InCountry's board as part of the deal. The latest round of funding brings the total capital raised by InCountry to $21 million and makes it tech vendor to recently
Yared compared the push to comply with data localization rules to what companies had to go through to adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Organizations that had databases filled with credit card numbers and other payment information had to move the data to a solution that was PCI compliant.
The choice to only handle regulated data, such as payment, health and employee information, was a deliberate one made by Yared and InCountry. Yared said the startup only wanted to work with information covered by standards and laws, such as PCI, the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and their global counterparts. All other forms of information were out of the question.
"A lot of these countries want to look at interpersonal communication, social media posts and the like. It’s just not something we are interested in being in the middle of," Yared said. "If the Chinese government needs to look at your financial transactions stored with us, I don’t have a problem disclosing that under Chinese law and regulation. I would have a problem disclosing people’s text messages. Ethically, it’s the line we’ve drawn for the company that makes us comfortable operating globally and helping multinationals be compliant in each country."
Launching a global enterprise is not an easy task, Yared admits. In order for it all to work, InCountry had to buy each data facility, go through the legal work to ensure data localization laws are met, and make sure everyone on vendor chain is ISO, SOC 2 and PCI certified.
Yared said one of InCountry's strengths is its thorough vendor examination, as the startup does not only vet its own vendors, but also
"We are a global company with a global perspective, so it was interesting that it was three global enterprises that funded the company this round and very quickly after our launch," Yared said. "We are pretty excited about it."
Yared wants InCountry to grow in conjunction with the data localization landscape. He said the eventual goal is to service more than 200 countries. The regional offices are part of a vision for InCountry that involves learning about the countries in which they operate.
"InCountry isn’t just a name. It’s the thesis of the company," Yared said. "As we go into particular countries, especially the ones we are going into deeply, we want to partner with regulators, local law firms and have people on the ground that understand the market."
Photo courtesy of InCountry.
