Silent Circle, a secure private communications firm, has raised $30 million in a funding round from investors including Ross Perot Jr. and Cain Capital.
The $30 million secured will be used to expand the company and to meet the “overwhelming demands” of the Blackphone device, which allows users to have control of privacy.
“Today’s announcements mark tremendous momentum in our goal of delivering secure and private communications on a global scale,” said Silent Circle CEO and co-founder Mike Janke.
“Awareness of global privacy threats is irrevocably affecting individuals’ and businesses’ behavior and driving worldwide demand for Silent Circle’s unmatched secure communication technology, calling plans and Blackphone devices.”
Blackphone, developed SGP Technologies, runs an Android fork called PrivatOS and is expected to start shipping in June. The device packs all sorts of security tools including encrypted voice and text communications tools from Silent Circle.
Silent Circle is also reportedly working with shuttered secure email service Lavabit on “Email 3.0,” which will supposedly leak less metadata than the encrypted email protocols available today.
Janke said that the company already has 23 of the Fortune 50 companies and 11 national governments in the list of customers in over 130 countries.
As part of the announcement, Silent Circle also said that it was relocating its headquarters from Nevis to Switzerland. The company already has bases in Washington, D.C., Canada and in London. SGP Technologies, the joint venture of Silent Circle and Geeksphone, is also headquartered in Switzerland.
Explaining the move to Switzerland, Silent Circle chief of revenue Vic Hyder said, “Switzerland’s strong privacy laws, legendary neutrality, and economic business advantages will allow us the ability to scale to Silent Circle’s rapid adoption by businesses, governments and individual prosumers around the world.”
