Anonos, provider of the only technology that protects data in use with 100% accuracy, today announced the acquisition of Berlin-based Statice GmbH, a synthetic data software provider. With the addition of the Statice solution, which generates new privacy-preserving data points that reflect the statistical properties of the original data, Anonos expands its ability to provide a comprehensive platform that powers speed to data insights for use cases while enhancing the protection and utilization of data. The Statice synthetic data technology will be integrated with the Anonos Data Embassy platform and available later this quarter. This acquisition follows Anonos’ recent announcement of $50 million in new growth financing backed by its intellectual property portfolio, facilitated by Aon (NYSE: AON) and led by GT Investment Partners (“Ghost Tree Partners”).
Statice was recently honored with the Handelsblatt Diamond Award in the best innovation in banking and fintech category, named in Gartner “Emerging Tech: Top Use Cases for Tabular Synthetic Data, September 2022,” and recognized in two 2022 Gartner Hype Cycle™ reports: Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and Machine Learning (ML). As noted in the latter report, Gartner predicts an increase in synthetic data adoption and growing buyers’ interest across all industries notably due to the multiple benefits of the technology, for example, how synthetic data can “reduce cost and save time in ML development as it is cheaper and faster to obtain.” The same report mentions that “synthetic data applications have expanded beyond automotive and computer vision use cases to include data monetization, external analytics support, platform evaluation and the development of test data.”
“Statice and Anonos share the goal of helping enterprises use more of their data assets, minus the usual conflicts and compromises,” said Anonos Co-CEO and President Ted Myerson. “Now organizations have the benefits of high-privacy, high-utility statutory pseudonymization combined with those of a proven synthetic data product for granular control throughout the data lifecycle.”
Enterprises have the option of using synthetic data whenever possible, and then combining it with Anonos’ non-identifiable yet 100% accurate Variant Twins® when there are privacy variables and risks – for example, to ensure compliance with Schrems II and the U.S. CLOUD Act for compliant data transfers across international borders. “From non-production use cases to full-production processing, more data control, privacy and accuracy aren’t just possibilities but actual realities,” Myerson added.
Anonos was named as a Cool Vendor by Gartner because of its Variant Twin technology and recognized in August for data security as a service in the “Gartner Hype Cycle for Data Security, 2022.” Data Embassy delinks data from both direct and indirect identifiers to obscure identity while enabling organizations to use more of their data for lawful analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data sharing and data transfer. It works by transforming source data into statutorily pseudonymized and 100% accurate Variant Twins authorized for specific purposes. They are embedded with multi-level data privacy and security controls that are technologically enforced, so they can travel anywhere. Controlled relinking to the original data accelerates speed to insights, but that process can only occur with the addition of other data held separately by the data controller or an authorized party.
Statice’s co-founders Omar Ali Fdal and Mikhail Dyakov join the Anonos leadership team, and all 23 Statice employees become Anonos employees for a total of 65, with a majority located in Europe. “We are thrilled to join Anonos to accelerate the development of an entire range of modern data protection solutions, helping organizations across industries be more confident in data privacy and security so they can gain more business value from their data,” said Omar Ali Fdal, co-founder of Statice. “Our visions and strengths are aligned in de-risking data so our customers can responsibly pursue data-driven initiatives to accomplish their business goals.”
“We recognized the great potential of privacy-enhancing technologies in the market early on. Especially in Germany and Europe, data protection law is strict, privacy concerns are manifold and our clients, as well as their customers’ demand for the protection of private data is very high. PwC incubated the capabilities of Statice’s synthetic data solution to support internal operations and external advisory requirements. Statice’s vision for data agility combined with privacy reliability changed how we drive digital transformation for our clients, and we are convinced that such technologies are poised to have a wide impact on global enterprise data strategies,” said Marcus Hartmann, Chief Data Officer at PwC Germany and PwC Europe. Now, it’s time to take the next step to industrialize the solutions. “The resulting joint capabilities of Statice with Anonos will offer privacy protection across the entire spectrum of data operations. That combination of privacy-enhancing techniques opens new possibilities for our clients in using more of their sensitive data to fuel innovation and modernization while eliminating the potential for data misuse.”
The terms of the transaction will not be disclosed. PwC is no longer a stockholder of Statice; Anonos is now the 100% stockholder of Statice.
