Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group has spent the past year working with Tangibly to safeguard valuable intellectual property.
The partnership has resulted in the creation of an artificial intelligence-powered platform that will enable businesses across various industries to efficiently detect, protect and manage their trade secrets, according to a press release by the Madrona Venture Group.
“Today, we are honored to lead the seed round for Tangibly as they build an AI-powered platform to help any company identify, protect, and manage trade secrets,” the release stated.
Trade secrets, with an estimated global value of $7 trillion, go beyond company recipes as they also protect all business information that the public is not aware of. Today, trade secret theft is believed to cost $1.7 trillion, according to the release.
Tangibly aims to establish itself as the industry standard for managing and optimizing the value of confidential information, the release stated. The company has cultivated a platform that implements a systematic process and workflow that can be effectively deployed across the enterprise to protect secrets.
The partnership stems from Patrick Ennis, a Venture partner, working with Tim Londergan and Chris Buntel, co-founders of Tangibly, for years.
"Tim and his co-founders, Liat Belinson and Chris Buntel, are an amazing team,” the release stated. “Not only are they brilliant technology and product strategists, but they also complement each other well. They are best in class when it comes to knowing this domain, have strong company-building superpowers, and together we believe they can build an enduring and scalable business in this incredibly important category.”
Ennis met Londergan in 2003 when Tim was a budding scientist transitioning into the role of a founder and entrepreneur, the release stated. Similarly, Ennis met Buntel in 2008, when he witnessed him using his legal and scientific expertise in the intellectual property arena.
Madrona Venture Group expressed their satisfaction in partnering with the group, along with other investors including Spike Ventures, MVP Ventures, Volo Ventures, Holt Ventures, Incisive Ventures, and law firms Wilson Sonsini and DLA Piper, according to the release.