Opaque Systems
Opaque Systems is a confidential AI platform built from academic research at UC Berkeley's RISELab.
Profile
Cloud platform that runs analytics and AI workloads on fully encrypted data, letting organizations extract insights without exposing raw data.
Opaque Systems is a confidential AI platform built from academic research at UC Berkeley's RISELab. Founded in 2021 by Ion Stoica (co-founder of Databricks), Raluca Ada Popa, Rishabh Poddar, Wenting Zheng, and Chester Leung, the company enables organizations to run analytics and machine learning directly on encrypted data using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and cryptographic protections. The platform combines hardware-based secure enclaves with software encryption, letting data teams extract insights from sensitive data without exposing it to cloud providers or other stakeholders.
Opaque's core product has evolved from analytics and ML to include AI agents, reflected in the launch of Confidential Agents with RAG workflows in June 2025 and the OPAQUE Studio development environment in October 2025. The company is now backed by $55.5 million in funding across four rounds, including a $24 million Series B announced in February 2026 at a $300 million valuation, led by Walden Catalyst and participated by Intel Capital, Race Capital, Storm Ventures, Thomvest, and the Advanced Technology Research Council. Aaron Fulkerson, formerly VP of General Manager at ServiceNow, became CEO in October 2023, while Dr.
Rishabh Poddar transitioned to CTO. With roughly 49 employees as of 2025, Opaque is positioning itself as the trust layer for enterprise AI in regulated industries including finance, insurance, healthcare, and high-tech. The company's recent go-live on Azure Marketplace signals enterprise readiness and tighter integration with hyperscaler ecosystems. Industry recognition includes inclusion in CB Insights' 2025 AI 100 list.
Who buys this
- Financial services firms running fraud detection and risk analysis on encrypted customer data
- Insurance companies using confidential AI for claims auditing and multi-party fraud detection
- Healthcare and biotech organizations conducting research on encrypted patient records and clinical trials
- High-tech companies leveraging AI-assisted coding on proprietary source code
- Regulated enterprises needing cryptographically verifiable compliance reporting
Publicly disclosed clients
- ServiceNow
- Anthropic
- Accenture
- Encore Capital
- RiskStream Collaborative
- Bloomfilter
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Founded and led by Berkeley researchers with deep cryptography and systems expertise; Raluca Ada Popa received the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award and co-created the underlying MC2 open-source project
- Only platform offering runtime-verifiable privacy guarantees with hardware-signed attestation; competitors lack cryptographic proof of data confidentiality before, during, and after execution
- Broad adoption across regulated industries (finance, insurance, healthcare) with hyperscaler partnerships; native integrations with Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud reduce deployment friction
Watch for
- Heavy dependence on Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) hardware features (Intel SGX, AMD SEV-SNP) which have historically faced side-channel vulnerabilities; shifts in CPU vendor roadmaps or TEE deprecations could impact platform viability
- Pricing model and go-to-market strategy not yet transparent; Series B funding largely consumed by R&D for new products (agents, studio) rather than sales acceleration—unclear if motion is product-led or enterprise-sales-heavy
- Customer concentration in financial services and insurance; limited evidence of broad adoption in other verticals like retail, telecom, or public-sector, raising questions about platform generalizability and market TAM
Recent moves
- 6mo ago OPAQUE Raises $24M Series B at $300M Valuation to Advance Confidential AI for the Enterprise
- 10mo ago OPAQUE Introduces OPAQUE Studio for Building Confidential AI Agents with Verifiable Guarantees
- 1y ago OPAQUE Systems Named to the 2025 CB Insights' List of the 100 Most Innovative AI Startups
- 1y ago OPAQUE Unveils Confidential Agents with Turnkey RAG Workflows, Reinventing Trust and Security in AI
Key Information
- Industry
- Privacy & Security
- Founded
- 2021
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Opaque Systems?
Opaque Systems is a cloud platform founded in 2021 that lets organizations run analytics and machine learning directly on fully encrypted data. Using Trusted Execution Environments and cryptography, it enables data teams to extract insights without exposing sensitive information to cloud providers or stakeholders.
Who founded Opaque Systems?
Opaque Systems was founded in 2021 by Ion Stoica (Databricks co-founder), Raluca Ada Popa, Rishabh Poddar, Wenting Zheng, and Chester Leung. The team drew from UC Berkeley's RISELab, where they developed the underlying cryptographic research. Aaron Fulkerson became CEO in October 2023.
What are the main use cases for Opaque Systems?
Opaque Systems serves financial services (fraud detection, risk analysis), insurance (claims auditing, multi-party fraud detection), healthcare (encrypted patient research, clinical trials), high-tech (AI-assisted coding on source code), and regulated enterprises. It enables cryptographically verifiable compliance reporting and privacy-preserving insights across industries.
How does Opaque Systems protect data confidentiality?
Opaque Systems combines hardware-based secure enclaves (Trusted Execution Environments like Intel SGX and AMD SEV-SNP) with software encryption and cryptographic protections. The platform uniquely provides runtime-verifiable privacy guarantees with hardware-signed attestation, delivering cryptographic proof of data confidentiality before, during, and after execution.
What new features did Opaque Systems launch recently?
In June 2025, Opaque unveiled Confidential Agents with turnkey RAG workflows, built on NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails and LangChain LangGraph. October 2025 introduced OPAQUE Studio, a development environment for building confidential AI agents with runtime-verifiable trust. April 2025 marked the Azure Marketplace debut.
How much funding has Opaque Systems raised?
Opaque Systems has raised $55.5 million across four funding rounds, including a $24 million Series B in February 2026 at a $300 million valuation. The Series B was led by Walden Catalyst with Intel Capital, Race Capital, Storm Ventures, Thomvest, and the Advanced Technology Research Council as investors.
How Opaque Systems compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Opaque Systems
- Positioning
- Cloud platform that runs analytics and AI workloads on fully encrypted data, letting organizations extract insights without exposing raw data.
- Customer segments
- Financial services firms running fraud detection and risk analysis on encrypted customer data
- Strengths
- Founded and led by Berkeley researchers with deep cryptography and systems expertise; Raluca Ada Popa received the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award and co-created the underlying MC2 open-source project
- Watch for
- Heavy dependence on Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) hardware features (Intel SGX, AMD SEV-SNP) which have historically faced side-channel vulnerabilities; shifts in CPU vendor roadmaps or TEE deprecations could impact platform viability
- Recent moves
- OPAQUE Raises $24M Series B at $300M Valuation to Advance Confidential AI for the Enterprise
Fortanix
- Positioning
- Enterprise confidential computing and key management platform for regulated AI pipelines, GDPR, and NIS2 compliance.
- Customer segments
- Financial services, healthcare, government enterprises. Security and infrastructure buyers targeting data-in-use protection and encryption key management.
- Strengths
- Data Security Manager: first FIPS 140-2 Level 3 SaaS HSM, providing a certifiable hardware-root-of-trust without on-prem appliances.
- Watch for
- No funding since $90M Series C (September 2022). 215-person headcount with no announced growth round raises runway questions.
- Recent moves
- December 2025: partnered HPE and NVIDIA to embed confidential computing in AI Factories via Armet AI platform.
Anjuna Security
- Positioning
- Universal confidential computing platform running existing workloads in secure enclaves without code changes, targeting AI data collaboration.
- Customer segments
- Pharma, financial services, tech enterprises needing secure multi-party data collaboration. IT and platform security engineering teams.
- Strengths
- Zero-code-change deployment lifts existing workloads into secure enclaves, removing months of application refactoring for customers.
- Watch for
- No growth round after $25M Series B2 (August 2024). Total cumulative raise modest for enterprise sales motion at scale.
- Recent moves
- August 2024: closed $25M Series B2 led by M Ventures (Merck KGaA corporate VC) to expand AI confidential computing.
Enveil
- Positioning
- Homomorphic encryption platform enabling encrypted data search and analytics without decryption, for financial and defense buyers.
- Customer segments
- Financial institutions, defense and intelligence agencies, regulated enterprises. Compliance and data security buyers needing encrypted data search.
- Strengths
- ZeroReveal processes over 1GB per second of encrypted data, the highest published throughput for commercial homomorphic encryption.
- Watch for
- Customer concentration risk: USAA, Mastercard, and Capital One are simultaneously lead investors and primary customers.
- Recent moves
- July 2025: launched ZeroReveal Search 6.0 (1GB per second throughput) and partnered Sayari for financial intelligence use cases.
Sources
- www.opaque.co — Company overview, product description, customer list (ServiceNow, Anthropic, Accenture, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Ant Group)
- www.opaque.co — Founding information (2021), founders (Ion Stoica, Raluca Ada Popa, Rishabh Poddar, Wenting Zheng, Chester Leung), current leadership (Aaron Fulkerson as CEO, Rishabh Poddar as CTO)
- www.prnewswire.com — Series B funding: $24M at $300M valuation in February 2026, led by Walden Catalyst, total funding $55.5M, use cases, industry verticals
- www.opaque.co — Series B details, investor list, customer examples (ServiceNow, Anthropic, Accenture, Encore Capital, RiskStream, Bloomfilter)
- waldencatalyst.com — Series A funding ($22M), investors (Walden Catalyst, Intel Capital, Race Capital, Storm Ventures, Thomvest, The House Fund, FactoryHQ)
- techcrunch.com — Seed funding ($9.5M in 2021), early company description, founding year 2021
- www.businesswire.com — Aaron Fulkerson appointed CEO in October 2023, background at ServiceNow, co-founder Rishabh Poddar became CTO
- www.prnewswire.com — Confidential Agents launch (June 2025) with RAG workflows, built on NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails and LangChain LangGraph
- www.prnewswire.com — OPAQUE Studio announcement (October 2025), development environment for confidential AI agents, runtime-verifiable trust
- www.prnewswire.com — Azure Marketplace availability (April 2025), platform capabilities for agentic workflows on encrypted data