Blue Sky Innovation Blue Sky Originals SpiderOak raises $3.5 million to store data with ‘zero knowledge’

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Is encryption enough? Ask Ashley Madison users, and they might say it’s a bare-minimum security requirement.

But data breaches aren’t the only reason individuals should care about online privacy, said Mike McCamon, president and chief marketing officer of Northbrook-based data security firm SpiderOak. He said users shouldn’t be OK with companies profiting off their identities — as in the case of Google and Facebook — either.

SpiderOak, which encrypts data on local devices, then backs them up in the cloud, announced it has raised a $3.5 million Series A funding round led by Chicago-based OCA Ventures, with participation from local investors BW Capital Partners, DRW Venture Partners and KGC Capital. The round brings the eight-year-old company’s total funding up to about $9 million.

U of I’s gesture recognition platform Rithmio lands $3M in seed round funding

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Who said tech innovation only happens at Stanford?

Rithmio, a gesture recognition platform founded at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013, announced that it has secured a $3 million seed round.

The round was co-led by KGC Capital and Intel Capital. They were joined by MAS Capital Pvt Ltd., OCA Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures Partners, Hyde Park Angels, Foley Ventures, MKRC Ventures, Serra Ventures, and New Coast Ventures.

“The funds will help us expand our team with algorithm engineers, Android, iOS, embedded and web developers, and also a business development lead,” said Adam Tilton, CEO & co-founder, Rithmio. “We’ll strengthen our wearable tech partnerships, release our gesture recognition SDK and collaborate with developers to ship products built on Rithmio’s platform.” relevant domains