DataMasque secures US$4M to unlock enterprise AI’s most sensitive data
DataMasque co-founders Grant de Leeuw and Greg Daniel
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, 2 JUNE 2026 – DataMasque, the data de-identification and synthetic data platform, today announced it has raised US$4 million in funding led by the early-stage fund of Wavemaker Partners, with existing investors OIF Ventures and Icehouse Ventures doubling down, and appointed co-founder of Instaclustr (acquired by NetApp) and seasoned investor Peter Lilley to its board as it scales across key markets.
The DataMasque team has tripled headcount and achieved 6x ARR growth since its seed round in late 2023. Its growing global customer roster includes New York Life, ADP, Best Western Hotels and Resorts, One NZ, TAL, and government agencies across New Zealand, Australia and the US.
Every large enterprise is grappling with how to leverage sensitive data, including customer records, call transcripts and more, in a safe way to adopt AI. AI transformation depends on access to this data, yet feeding it into AI systems risks catastrophic breaches and regulatory exposure.
DataMasque solves both sides. Its platform allows organisations to use their most sensitive data for AI innovation while retaining full fidelity and integrity without it ever leaving their own infrastructure. Already, global enterprises across regulated industries are leveraging DataMasque to fine-tune generative AI models at a speed and scale previously impossible.
“Enterprise AI projects are increasingly blocked by data access. This funding validates the need for synthetically identical customer data to feed into AI models or use to evaluate, test and train AI,” said Grant de Leeuw, Co-Founder and CEO of DataMasque.
The funding will accelerate DataMasque's mission to give highly regulated organisations the ability to leverage their most valuable data assets without increased risk.
“As enterprises feed more data into AI systems, they need a way to protect sensitive information without compromising datasets used for testing and analytics. DataMasque’s platform solves that. The company has helped customers to mask data 7x faster, reducing traditional masking workflows from days to hours,” said Paul Santos, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners. “The strength of its value proposition has enabled the company to win multiple customers in BFSI, government, and telecommunications globally, and we are excited to partner with DataMasque for its next chapter of growth.”
Alongside the funding, DataMasque has launched a first-of-its-kind capability that unlocks unstructured data – such as call transcripts, emails and logs – for AI and analytics. The vast majority of enterprise data sits in this unstructured form, largely untouched because the privacy risk has been too high.
DataMasque offers a unified platform connecting both structured and unstructured data, opening up an entirely new category of data that organisations can now safely activate for AI.
With the funding, new board expertise and expanded product capability, DataMasque is positioned to become the data infrastructure layer powering enterprise AI adoption globally.
Isabella Rich, Partner, OIF Ventures, said: "When we first invested in 2023, few enterprises had recognised the sensitive data problem that the DataMasque team saw. Today, it's blocking nearly every serious AI rollout. Grant and the team are building the data infrastructure layer for enterprise AI, and we're proud to be doubling down."
Bex Gidall, Principal, Icehouse Ventures, said: "With a lean team based largely in New Zealand, DataMasque has managed to win highly competitive enterprise deals against far better-resourced global competitors. At a time when companies are trying to work out how to deploy AI safely, we think they’re exceptionally well-positioned. Yes, there are major tailwinds behind the space, but tailwinds alone don't win contracts like the ones DataMasque has secured.”
ENDS
About DataMasque
DataMasque is a sensitive data discovery and masking platform that enables enterprises to generate synthetically identical customer data for AI training, testing, and analytics. Founded in New Zealand and operating globally, DataMasque serves regulated enterprises across financial services, insurance, hospitality, and the public sector. The company is backed by Wavemaker Partners, OIF Ventures, and Icehouse Ventures. For more information, visit datamasque.com.
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