Cloaked raises $25 million to help individuals decentralize their identity
Cloaked, a consumer-first privacy company that enables individuals to safely share personal data with people or companies based on their level of comfort, has announced $25M in Series A funding.
The round was co-led by Lux Capital and Human Capital.
Founded by two brothers, Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar, Cloaked is changing the way people use their data and setting rules for how that information can be used – without changing every day behavior.
Instead of sharing personal information like a phone number, email, or credit card with websites, the Cloaked app and browser extension enables individuals to use unlimited, unique identities. Cloaked creates instant identifiers and smart settings to make it easy for individuals to choose what, when, where and with whom they share information. When browsing online or in-person, Cloaked automatically generates unique email addresses, phone numbers, credit cards, passwords, and other account information.
“We like to feel known, not surveilled. People need to be able to freely share their personal information without feeling exposed or at risk,” said Arjun Bhatnagar, CEO and co-founder of Cloaked. “We want to make personal privacy easy so we can turn data sharing into an empowering experience for everyone, and putting us on the same playing field as the companies using our data.”
To establish data ownership, Cloaked keeps personal data private from the start. With every account sign up, the Cloaked platform creates a new, encrypted database for every user where all personal information is stored, giving them the keys and control to manage or delete at any point.
“With Cloaked, we found a startup that combined a frictionless experience with a privacy-first, highly decentralized infrastructure that allows everyone to easily transact on the web without needing to get too personal,” said Bilal Zuberi, Partner at Lux Capital, who will be joining the board. “Arjun and Abhijay have realized a key point: to improve security and privacy, technology needs to make things easier on the internet, not just safer. Cloaked gets the work done without getting in the way.”
Smart settings make it easy for individuals to personalize and customize how each identity works. Messages can auto forward to personal emails and phone numbers, or live within Cloaked. Identifiers are limited to specific companies and individuals, enabling granular control. Each unique phone, email, or set of account information can be turned on/off, snoozed, expired, and auto updated when compromised.
“The relationship consumers have with technology doesn’t need to be a love-hate relationship,” said Abhijay Bhatnagar, CTO and co-founder of Cloaked. “Technology has the potential to do so much more for us, but we need to start from the beginning and set proper boundaries and create real agency for people.”
Cloaked is Arjun and Abhijay’s second startup together. The brothers built and sold their first startup — Hey! HeadsUp — in 2016. Founded in 2020, Cloaked is the result of more than a decade spent building together and the realization that privacy has to start with enabling the individual to be in control of their own information. Arjun is a three time tech startup founder and is currently the director of a nonprofit and was a partner in RallyCry Ventures. Abhijay worked for MITRE, and as their youngest ever engineer, worked on building a universal healthcare record.
“We’re thrilled to be co-leading our third consecutive round at Cloaked,” said Baris Akis, co-founder, President and Managing Partner at Human Capital. “We had the opportunity to meet Arjun and Abhijay through our inaugural Delta Fellowship, and were struck by their passion for assembling great teams, and their mission to build impactful products.”
Cloaked will use this funding to continue to improve its technology and exit beta, scale its team, and establish meaningful partnerships within the industry.