Valarian raises $7M to isolate and compartmentalize mission-critical computing environments – News

Secure infrastructure startup Valarian Technologies Ltd. said today it has raised $7 million in strategic funding as it bids to reinvent security for enterprises and government agencies that cannot tolerate any risk.

The round, which brings Valarian’s total amount raised to date to $20 million, was led by the defense-focused venture capital firm Scott Ventures and Artis Ventures, and saw participation from previous investors including Molten Ventures, IQ Capital and MD One, as well as the angel investor Gokul Rajaram.

The U.K.-based startup has built a highly secure infrastructure platform called ACRA, which it says is designed to enforce isolation, access, auditability and control to protect against security threats and preserve the operational integrity of critical systems that simply cannot be exposed to risk.

The ACRA platform is engineered for compartmentalized data and compute, and supports the development of secure systems for collaboration, coordination and compliance, where every action, permission and surface is sealed by default. It’s an autonomous platform that can run on any infrastructure, with built-in compartmentalization to ensure data is sealed and siloed in any location.

Valarian was founded by the former international finance operator Max Buchan and ex-Palantir executive and U.S. Army officer Josh McLaughlin in response to the risks associated with using fragmented tools and siloed data, which leaves sensitive conversations exposed. It’s designed to give customers total control over how their systems behave, and how data flows between them.

The company, which initially targeted enterprises with specialized security needs, is now hoping to cater to government agencies dealing with matters of national security. So far, it has built two products for enterprises that are based on the ACRA platform. They are Privileged Communication, which enables ultra-secure communications, and External Comms Capture, which is designed for monitoring messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Signal.

Now, it’s adding a third product to its lineup called Valarian Defence, which enhances the capabilities of those platforms to support “government-grade deployments” that require enforced compartmentalization and secure coordination infrastructure.

Buchan said he teamed up with McLaughlin to build ACRA because existing compute environments don’t trust shared infrastructure. “That skepticism is becoming standard,” he said. “The more sophisticated the threat landscape becomes, the less room there is for improvisation in how institutions protect communications, data and operational continuity.”

McLaughlin said governments and regulated institutions need higher grade security because the risk from breaches extends beyond just sensitive data leaks.

“Breaches disrupt discretion, decision-making and the ability to respond,” he said. “Valarian Defence is about helping governments and institutions retain control even when everything else is under stress.”

Valarian said the funds from today’s round will help it to expand its government partnerships and architect additional deployment pathways for its software. By doing that, it hopes to bring platform-level containment to more computing environments that previously relied on bolted-on security.

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