Data-Security Startup Theom

"Theom, a startup that helps businesses safeguard and track sensitive data, raised $20 million in its latest investing round, drawing support from rival data-platform giants Snowflake and Databricks, the company said Monday.

The Series A round was led by Wing VC and included participation from cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. Theom's valuation wasn't disclosed.

Navindra Yadav, Theom's co-founder and chief executive, said the funds will go toward product development and recruiting, among other areas.

The round follows an oversubscribed $16.4 million seed round in late 2022, when San Jose, Calif.-based Theom emerged from stealth mode. It has since gained a number of large enterprise customers, many in highly regulated industries. They include Fiserv, Tradeweb and JetBlue.

Theom's AI-powered platform enables companies to inventory their data, gauge data value and risk, control who can access it and when. It also maintains security controls as the data is stored, moved or copied across cloud, software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and generative AI environments.

Yadav, a former engineer at both Cisco and Google, said Theom runs in a customer company's own systems, rather than the standard practice of extracting data to process it.

Keeping data within a business's walls offers chief information and security officers and other data gatekeepers an extra layer of assurance, Yadav said: "None of their data leaves their jurisdiction."

It also gives Theom an edge over competitors, as more companies stockpile data for a growing arsenal of AI tools.

Harsha Kapre, director of Snowflake Ventures, the venture-capital arm of cloud-based data-warehousing platform Snowflake, said Theom's approach to data security and governance is attractive to Snowflake's customers. Beyond capital, he said, Snowflake brings a "go to market" strategy for Theom.

"We obviously want a return on investment, but our focus is on what the customer is getting out of it," Kapre said. As such, he isn't concerned that Databricks, which overlaps with some Snowflake services, is also an investor.

Likewise, Databricks sees Theom drawing customers to its own AI data repository and analytics platform, regardless of other investors. "Theom is a natural partner for us to invest in," said Andrew Ferguson, head of Databricks Ventures. "I think Snowflake saw many of the same aspects as we did." [1]

1. Data-Security Startup Theom Raises $20 Million. Loten, Angus.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 13 May 2025: B4.