Tangibly, a trade secret management platform, announced today a pre-seed financing of $1.3M with participation from WS Investment Company (Wilson Sonsini’s venture arm), Madrona Venture Group, and a number of seed funds, influential founders and angel investors.
Trade secrets are widely considered the most valuable intangible assets of technology, life sciences and manufacturing companies alike. According to Ocean Tomo, 90% of the S&P 500’s market value is intangible assets, which is up from 17% in 1975. Trade secret laws protect these assets but require companies to proactively follow best practices to enable enforcement.
Tangibly’s new capital will be used for product development, including AI/ML initiatives as well as building the sales and marketing teams. The company recently released Tangibly Share, a free Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) solution for companies of all sizes looking to take the first step in protecting their trade secrets – establishing a process for NDA creation, execution, tracking and auditing.
“Recent geo-political and legal challenges have dramatically raised corporate awareness of the need to actively manage trade secrets, but it is a complex process that most companies have not fully addressed,” said Tim Londergan, Tangibly’s Founder and CEO. “The response from our early customers combined with the backing from these two firms steeped in new category creation signals a big opportunity ahead of us.”
Distinct from Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights, Trade Secrets make up the bulk of a company’s IP and competitive advantage. These trade secrets include data, code, business processes, and manufacturing processes, and apply to industries as diverse as Food & Beverage, Beauty, Technology, Manufacturing and Finance. Tangibly Manage, the company’s flagship product, is a platform that encompasses identification and labeling of trade secrets and limiting of access, and clear communication to employees and 3rd parties.
“Leaking of trade secrets not only causes companies to lose their market advantage, it can also make it difficult to pursue legal enforcement action despite the very clear laws and regulations protecting trade secrets. Not effectively managing trade secrets is as good as acknowledging that they have no value and as the information economy has grown, the solutions to protect these secrets has lagged substantially. We are excited to back Tangibly as they build their platform into a solution for global companies in all disciplines,” said Patrick Schultheis, Partner at Wilson Sonsini.
“Trade secrets are a critical component in a company’s intellectual property strategy. New collaboration models, remote working scenarios and employee mobility are exposing new set of vulnerabilities that must be protected against. We believe Tangibly’s unique platform is the right solution at the right time delivering instantaneous business value by protecting a company’s crown jewels,” said Aseem Datar, partner at Madrona.
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In recognition of the incredible growth of trade secrets, the US government passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) in 2016 to provide a consistent set of rules for trade secret owners to obtain relief when their trade secrets are stolen or misappropriated. Additionally international trade secret regulations have been instituted and successfully leveraged for both US and international companies. The key element in defending trade secrets is that the company has taken “reasonable measures to keep their information secret.” Tangibly helps its customers do that through streamlined workflow, including documentation, asset tracking and sharing, and employee and partner management.
Tangibly is currently being used by General Counsels and Heads of IP, as well as by outside counsel who are helping their clients implement trade secret management practices.
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