Zero-Party Data Launch for Former Salesforce Exec

In New York, former Salesforce exec John Roa has launched a zero-party data platform called Caden, with a $3.4m round of pre-seed funding.

Roa (pictured) previously founded digital experience and engagement consultancy ÄKTA in 2010, and then sold it to customer relationship management specialist Salesforce in 2015; and he has since run his own investment company Roa Ventures. His new Caden platform provides users with control over their data and enables them to earn a profit by sharing certain data with brands, while never relinquishing ownership of that data.

Caden's suite of products includes VAULT, a fully encrypted, on-device 'data wallet', powered by a custom knowledge graph architecture. It also features LINK, a two-way API which allows users to download their data from multiple brand sources, uncover insights about themselves, allow companies access to select pieces of data, and be compensated for that exchange. This data remains owned and controlled by the user, and Caden can help its partner brands with aggregated insights, personalization, recommendations, data cleansing, machine learning, inference, identity, portability, and other functions.

The pre-seed round is backed by investors including Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, Starwood Capital's Barry Sternlicht, MediaLink's Wenda Millard, and seven venture capital firms. Caden CTO Howie Altman comments: 'We are building a powerful platform that will handle a lot of heavy lifting, so every consumer brand doesn't need to become a big data company. It complies with all current and pending privacy regulations while giving absolute control and transparency to the user. Nothing of its kind currently exists, and its timing is perfect with the unprecedented level of disruption that is occurring today'.

Web site: www.caden.io .