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Business

24th Oct 2019

19-year-old college dropout and CEO Shane Curran is changing the future of online privacy with $3.2m funding

Louise Carroll

If you think you couldn’t feel like any more of an underachiever, then please, read on.

Nineteen-year-old entrepreneur, Shane Curran, recently secured $3.2 million in funding for his start-up company evervault which basically makes data privacy a simpler process for businesses by using its own cloud-based processors.

Speaking on this week’s episode of All In, Shane, who  by the way, also made it onto Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list last year, said:

“We’re making data privacy really, really simple for people who are building mobile apps or web applications.

“Instead of it being a problem that compliance and privacy teams are looking after, we’re making it a core feature for people who are building their products because if you want to integrate it [privacy] from day one, which is where we think the thing should be going, and that’s the way the market is shifting, the tool kit just really sucks.

Listen to the full interview here.

“So, if you want to bake in it from day one, the tools aren’t there and we’re building those tools.”

Shane’s obsession with computers and coding began at a very young age — he even founded his first company, Libramatic, at age 12. (And yes, he was CEO.) A turning point for the young entrepreneur was the Bt Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in 2017. Here, Shane was already turning the idea of privacy protection into a product and he was awarded first place for his project Qcrypt.

He subsequently received a number of encouraging messages from businesses urging him to turn his research into a product they could use.

“I’ve always really been interested in privacy and solving that problem in general. As a company our mission is to make data privacy simple and accessible for all, so everything we work on is based around that kind of mission, I guess.”

Besides investing in the product further, evervault will be using its new funding to hire a pool of talent in Dublin.

Shane features on this week’s episode of All In, JOE’s all-new business show.

All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you find your favourite podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday