Wiretap Closes $4.9 Million First Round of Funding

PRESS RELEASE

Columbus, Ohio —Wiretap, a leading innovator of security solutions for Enterprise Social Networks and collaboration tools, today announced it has closed a $4.9M Series A equity investment, led by Pittsburgh-based Draper Triangle Ventures, Columbus-based Ohio Innovation Fund and Rev1 Ventures, as well as JumpStart Inc., based in Cleveland. Proceeds will fuel go-to-market sales, marketing and continued Research and Development.
 
Wiretap empowers safe, intuitive and intelligent collaboration by closing the security gaps inherent in today’s ubiquitous Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs), as well as collaboration tools such as Microsoft Yammer^®, Workplace by Facebook and Slack. The conversational and collaborative nature of these tools provides a natural 'water cooler' environment where employees share new ideas, collaborate on initiatives, share information and achieve greater collaboration than ever before.

“As the demand and popularity of Enterprise Social Networks soars, Wiretap bridges a critical security gap – ensuring the enterprise remains secure while maximizing the productivity and inherent collaboration of their ESN investments,” said Wiretap CEO Jeff Schumann. “We are grateful to our Series A investment partners at Draper Triangle, the Ohio Innovation Fund, Rev1 Ventures and JumpStart for their continued commitment, vision and leadership as we accelerate our go-to-market efforts, grow our customer base and forge new partnerships to help scale our growth.”
 
“Wiretap has a very talented team with a deep technical knowledge of their market, which is large and growing,” said JumpStart Senior Partner in charge of investing, Rem Harris. “The Company is a great fit for our NEXT Fund and we are very excited to be a partner in helping them accelerate their growth.”
 
“Rev1 Ventures is committed to supporting high-growth companies, like Wiretap, as they scale and grow,” said Rev1 Ventures Executive Vice President for Investment Funds, Ryan Helon. “With an innovative approach for securing enterprise collaboration tools and a compelling vision for helping companies maximize social channels for better engagement and performance, Wiretap is poised for explosive success and we’re excited to be part of their journey.”
 
In addition to delivering the security and assurance needed to safely deploy and effectively manage ESNs, Wiretap provides unique visibility into an organization’s sentiment, mood and social health — giving them the ability to see behavioral patterns as they are unfolding to make more informed organizational decisions. Delivered and scaled easily, Wiretap stewards their customers’ most valuable assets — including safeguarding intellectual property and customer data, protecting employees from harassment, ensuring HR policies are followed and empowering companies to follow detailed industry compliance regulations. 
 
A Nov. 2016 study by Persistence Market Research titled Enterprise Social Networks and Online Communities Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast 2016–2026, predicts the global enterprise social networks and online communities market will grow from $2.6B in 2016 to $12.18B by 2026, registering a CAGR of 16.5 percent. The same report cites ESN security as a major enterprise concern:
 
Lack of proper security is one of the major challenges that companies face, and is a primary factor expected to continue to restrain adoption of enterprise social networks and online communities. Online collaboration of business information with social networking websites creates an opportunity for hackers to illegally access information or gain unauthorized access to critical business data through social websites.