PerspecSys Inc., the leader in cloud data protection solutions for the enterprise, today announced it has raised $12 million in funding co-led by new investors Paladin Capital Group and Ascent Venture Partners, and joined by return backer Intel Capital and other existing institutional investors. Together with Series A funding, this new round of financing brings the total investment in PerspecSys to over $20 million. Given the market demand, the company will use the new investment to support continued global sales and marketing expansion and technology innovation for customers across banking, insurance, government/public sector, healthcare, and manufacturing markets.

Since its founding, PerspecSys has experienced rapid growth " broadening the reach of its industry-leading Cloud Data Protection Gateway to support multiple popular cloud applications and aggressively expanding its client roster, which now includes three of the world's largest financial institutions and one of its biggest multinational conglomerates. With offices in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, PerspecSys remains focused on one goal: removing the main barriers to enterprise cloud adoption " data security and control. The company developed its patent-pending, award-winning cloud data security gateway to ensure both. By leveraging industry-validated, well-vetted encryption and tokenization techniques, PerspecSys secures sensitive data while keeping it in customers' control at all times and enabling full cloud-application functionality and performance " a combination other cloud data security solutions claim, but cannot match.

"The marketplace is shifting. Enterprises are learning that you cannot secure your data unless you fully control your data " and PerspecSys is the only company helping them solve that problem with a mature solution," said Philip Elliot, of Paladin Capital Group, who has joined the PerspecSys board of directors.

"We have seen a real shift over the last 12 months in the acceptance and adoption by large enterprises of SaaS offerings. But these major companies have increased sensitivity to data protection. The fact that PerspecSys can enable SaaS adoption by protecting sensitive data makes them a compelling opportunity. Add in their proven technology, seasoned leadership team and satisfied customer base, and they become a very smart investment," said Matt Fates of Ascent Venture Partners, who has also joined the PerspecSys board of directors.

Recent reports from leading research firm Gartner Inc. illuminate some of the challenges associated with traditional approaches to cloud data protection " namely, a tradeoff between application usability and weakened security. Unlike other companies that have recently come under industry scrutiny for using proprietary encryption techniques in their solutions, PerspecSys' technology eliminates that tradeoff by being able to use industry-validated, well-vetted encryption modules or independent 3rd-party assessed tokenization techniques to intercept sensitive data while it is still on-premise and replacing it with random tokens or encrypted values. Doing so renders the data meaningless to anyone who tries to "hack" it in transit or in the cloud. At the same time, the PerspecSys solution preserves cloud application functionality " giving end users access to features and functions like search and e-mail " even on sensitive data that has been tokenized or strongly encrypted.

With Gartner predicting that $677 billion will be spent on cloud services worldwide between 2013 and 2016, and $42 billion on cloud-based security by 2016, the market opportunity for PerspecSys remains vast. Because PerspecSys delivers the only solution that supports a variety of popular cloud applications like Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand with validated encryption solutions from companies like Voltage Security, McAfee, SafeNet, Symantec, and RSA, the company is in a clear position to ensure the billions of dollars spent on cloud services offer the greatest return on investment for enterprises.

"While the cloud continues to deliver amazing benefits to companies worldwide, it also continues to pose some major hurdles," said David Canellos, CEO of PerspecSys. "Businesses are struggling to balance critical data residency, compliance, privacy and security requirements that come with cloud adoption against the need for full application functionality and ease of use. Our focused efforts over the last four years have produced the most advanced gateway in the industry, delivering the only data protection solution that passes the strictest European and U.S. regulatory requirements."

About PerspecSys
PerspecSys Inc. is a leading provider of cloud data protection solutions that enable mission-critical cloud applications to be adopted throughout the enterprise. PerspecSys removes the technical, legal and financial risks of placing sensitive company data in the cloud. PerspecSys accomplishes this for many large, heavily regulated companies across the world by never allowing sensitive data to leave a customer's network, while maintaining the functionality of cloud applications. Based in Toronto, PerspecSys Inc. is a privately held company backed by investors that include Intel Capital and GrowthWorks. For more information please visit www.perspecsys.com or follow on Twitter @perspecsys.

About Ascent Venture Partners
Ascent Venture Partners (www.ascentvp.com) is dedicated to investing in innovation for the enterprise. In backing more than 100 early-stage, emerging technology companies since 1985, Ascent has remained committed to its mission of partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs striving to build innovative market leaders. Ascent's investments have yielded powerful results generating more than $10 billion in enterprise value, which speaks to the firm's deep knowledge, experience, commitment, and networks. The Ascent investment team manages five venture funds with total commitments of more than $450 million, and is located in Boston, Mass.

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 317 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

About Paladin Capital Group
Paladin Capital Group is a leading multi-stage private equity firm comprised of individuals with a proven track record of financial expertise, and national security experience. We provide capital and strategic guidance to growing companies in the IT, telecommunications and alternative energy sectors. The firm focuses on companies with products and services that are "dual use" in nature, serving both commercial and government customers.

Paladin has over $950 million dollars of committed capital across multiple funds and has invested in over 50 portfolio companies. For more information, visit www.paladincapgroup.com