Usercentrics (www.usercentrics.com) closes further multi-million fundraising round to leverage privacy momentum and expand market leading position
Munich, 8 July 2019. Usercentrics (www.usercentrics.com), leading SaaS Consent Management Platform headquartered in Munich, today announced a Series A financing round led by growth fund ALSTIN Capital, with participation from existing investors Cavalry Ventures and Reimann Investors. In addition, a well known angel investor has jumped on the financing bandwagon: Executive Alexander Gösswein, who is in charge of several regions for NASDAQ listed Criteo . The new investment will allow Usercentrics to further accelerate product development and customer growth as companies worldwide are preparing for stricter privacy regulations whose enforcement will become a key success factor of any data-driven business model.
Privacy as a competitive advantage
The Usercentrics software enables companies to collect, manage and document user consent in compliance with the data collected. The technology is already successfully implemented by hundreds of customers, including Fortune 500 companies such as Telefonica, T-Mobile and Commerzbank.
“The proper management of the user’s consent has become a very relevant constraint for data-driven business models and thus a competitive advantage. If personal data is processed in the future, the company must prove the data’s origin, exact purpose, retention period and many more attributes. If the organization fails to do so, data from several years may have to be deleted in retrospect if the respective consents have not been documented correctly. This leads to a loss of customers and revenue. The company thus exposes itself to a significant risk, which exceeds the 4% fine foreseen in the GDPR,” comments Mischa Rürup, founder and CEO of Usercentrics. “Without consent, personal data is worth nothing; and without data, consent is worthless. Data and their consents only become a success factor after being merged. Usercentrics therefore generates consent IDs and attaches them directly to the data so that the consents are linked to the data.
We see a significant increase of interest in our solution, particularly from risk-averse customers in the automotive, insurance and banking industries.” – says Rürup.
Usercentrics was founded in late 2017 by Mischa Rürup, Vinzent Ellissen and Lisa Gradow. Usercentrics CEO Mischa Rürup had previously founded the software company intelliAd and successfully sold it to DHL.
Global Wave of Data Protection Regulations Fosters Quick Expansion
Usercentrics does not plan to stop within the regulations of GDPR. “Data privacy and consent are becoming key factors in the way companies keep operating successfully all across the globe” says Rürup “and with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Brazil General Data Protection Act (LGPD), which both become effective in early 2020, we plan to expand at a rapid rate.”
For Usercentrics, global expansion will be achieved primarily through scalable strategic partnerships and white label solutions for agencies and technologies. In April, Usercentrics recruited Senior Google Manager Jürgen Weichert. As former Head of Strategic Partnership Development at Google for DACH, he and his team have built partnerships resulting in over $100 million per quarter in partner sales. In his new role at Usercentrics, he is now in charge of establishing a global partner program.
Investors’ attention to PrivacyTech is growing
Carsten Maschmeyer, Managing Partner of ALSTIN Capital: “Data protection is currently at the top of everyone’s agenda. As a PrivacyTech startup, Usercentrics is an impressive pioneer with the potential to become the world market leader. Many companies will need Usercentrics if they want to continue to operate their business models with data processing in compliance with the law. Not only in Germany, but worldwide. And with Mischa Rürup, they have a founder in the lead who has already proven through his former company and its sale to DHL how to build a big and successful business”.
Michael Riemenschneider, Managing Director of Reimann Investors: “In the last months, Usercentrics has proven that the demand for a Consent Management Platform has risen significantly. The market is just emerging and as a first mover with a market leading position, Usercentrics already has an unparalleled advantage over both old and new competitors.”
Stefan Walter, Managing Partner of Cavalry Ventures: “When assessing and valuing companies with digital business models, data protection has become an essential factor. The impact can be both positive and negative, depending on how much the company values principles such as Privacy by Design and Privacy by Default. Usercentrics offers an out-of-the-box solution in this success-critical and technology-intensive area. We not only recommend this solution to our portfolio companies in Germany, but also see great demand in the global market”.
About Usercentrics
Headquartered in the heart of Munich, Usercentrics’ vision is to create a new infrastructure for user consent across data architectures – making privacy practical. As a leader in the area of Consent Management Platforms (CMP), the SaaS solution enables businesses to collect, manage and document user consents across all digital channels such as websites or apps. Thus, compliance with current and future international privacy regulations such as GDPR, ePrivacy and CCPA can be ensured. Since its founding in late 2017, the company has grown dramatically and now counts hundreds of leading organizations as customers. Usercentrics is backed by premier venture capital investors including ALSTIN, Reimann Investors and Cavalry Ventures. For more information, visit www.usercentrics.com.
About ALSTIN
ALSTIN Capital (www.alstin.de) is an independent, long-term venture capital fund based in Munich. ALSTIN Capital’s investment focus lies on innovative, dynamically growing companies that operate successfully in markets such as Financial Services/FinTech, Insurance/InsurTech, Cyber Security and Industry 4.0. Besides significant financing ALSTIN actively supports portfolio companies in building professional and scalable B2B sales operations.
About Reimann Investors
Reimann Investors (www.reimann-investors.com) was founded as a single family office by members of the Reimann family who sold their stake in the former family business at the end of the 1990s. Today, Reimann Investors has evolved into a group of companies, centred around Reimann Investors GmbH & Co. KGaA, which is a family business and anchor investor. The investment focus is on capital market investments and direct investments in digital growth companies in the e-commerce, Fintech and SaaS sectors. With a venture capital fund, Reimann Investors is also open to external investors and shares its experience in financing and building companies such as Sofort AG with ambitious founders in Series A financing rounds.
Über Cavalry Ventures
Cavalry Ventures (https://www.cavalry.vc/) is an entrepreneurially driven VC fund based in Berlin with focus on angel and seed-stage investments in Europe. The six founding Partners have repeatedly financed, founded, built and sold market-leading companies such as Delivery Hero, Tradeshift or plista. Being both, experienced investors and still active entrepreneurs, the cavalry offers hands-on support and a strong value-add to ambitious founders of fast-growing technology companies.