Data confidentiality start-up with HQ in Ireland raises €5.35m in funding round 

(Left to right) Oblivious founders Robert Pisarczyk and Jack Fitzsimons have extensive background in computer engineering, data science, machine learning, and cryptography.

Dublin-based tech start-up Oblivious has raised €5.35m in funding as it seeks to develop new software tools to allow secure access to confidential data.

This funding round was led by Cavalry Ventures, a Berlin-based early-stage venture capital fund. It was joined by a range of supporting European and US-based venture capitalists and angel investors including Act VC, Atlantic Bridge, Firestreak Ventures, Expeditions Fund and Hustle Fund.

The company was founded in 2020 by Robert Pisarczyk and Jack Fitzsimons who both have PhDs from the University of Oxford. The pair also have extensive background in computer engineering, data science, machine learning, and cryptography.

Oblivious is focused on confidential computing aimed at building tools to allow data scientists and machine learning models to work on sensitive data while enforcing confidentiality constraints. The company said that this would broker trust between businesses.

Mr Pisarczyk, who also serves as the company’s chief executive, said that the tech sector has poured “hundreds of billions” into building “robust data lakes and advanced science tooling” but standard access controls to this data “remains untouched since the 80s”.

“We focus on building tools that allow data scientists to access and use the world's most impactful data while ensuring it is used for its intended purpose, and we call it ‘Eyes-Off Data Science’,” he said.

Mr Pisarczyk said that large companies which rely on vast amounts of user data, such as AirBnB or Uber, “can’t simply” hand their data over to scientists.

“We believe that by restricting how data is used, through modern privacy-enhancing technologies, we can open the doors to the next wave of data innovations while providing the safety rails to ensure it is only used for good," he said. 

Oblivious currently has 13 staff and intends to create seven new jobs following this funding round. It is headquartered at NovaUCD in Dublin.