Silent Circle, a startup providing private encrypted communications solutions, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $30 million in funding in a round led by investors including Ross Perot Jr. and Cain Capital.
According to the company, it will use the new injection of cash to further accelerate its growth and momentum in the secure communications market and to meet the “overwhelming demand” for Blackphone – its fully encrypted smartphone designed to thwart snooping governments and other attackers.
SilentCircle was co-founded by former Navy SEAL sniper Mike Janke, and PGP creator Phil Zimmermann, and has created a platform for encrypted text, mobile phone, video teleconferencing and file transfer services through a secure, proprietary network and set of applications.
“Today’s announcements mark tremendous momentum in our goal of delivering secure and private communications on a global scale,” said Silent Circle CEO and co-founder Mike Janke. “Awareness of global privacy threats is irrevocably affecting individuals’ and businesses’ behavior and driving worldwide demand for Silent Circle’s unmatched secure communication technology, calling plans and Blackphone devices.”
In addition to announcing the new round of funding, the company said that it is relocating its global headquarters from the Caribbean island of Nevis to Switzerland.
“The move to Switzerland is extremely important for us as a company serving a global customer base. Switzerland’s strong privacy laws, legendary neutrality, and economic business advantages will allow us the ability to scale to Silent Circle’s rapid adoption by businesses, governments and individual pro-sumers around the world,” said Vic Hyder, Silent Circle Chief of Revenue.
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“Having followed Silent Circle’s growth and profile in the industry, we are excited about backing the company’s future and fulfilling the wider demand for accessible, easy to use privacy apps that are already an indispensable means of communication,” said investor Anurag Jain. “This is particularly true in fast-growing markets outside of the U.S. where demand for private communications solutions is fueled by strong privacy cultures, intrusive surveillance and censorship.”
With offices outside Washington, D.C. and in London, data centers located in Canada and Switzerland and employees located around the world, Silent Circle claims to be a “truly neutral and unbiased” international company.
Last year, Silent Circle shut down its encrypted email service to avoid becoming a target after the US government subpoenaed the records of a similar secure e-mail provider called Lavabit.
