Former Eir chief executive Herb Hribar has led a €2.1 million investment in Cork-based data security company, Getvisibility.
The start-up was founded in 2018 by Ronan Murphy and Mark Bronan as a spin-out from the former's long-established and highly regarded cybersecurity company, Smarttech247.
Mr Hribar is to become chairman of Getvisibility following the investment, which also included participation from Sure Valley Ventures, Enterprise Ireland, Mr Murphy's Smarttech247, Pires Investment and Manifold. It brings to €3.1 million the total funding raised to date by the start-up.
Getvisibility, whose clients include Laya Healthcare, the Department of Agriculture and FBD Insurance, had developed proprietary software that uses artificial intelligence to discover, classify and protect unstructured data typically contained in PDFs, spreadsheets and text documents. In doing so Getvisibility helps organisations better visualise their data footprint to ensure more proactive management and security.
Mr Hribar has held the roles of chief executive or chief operating officer at a number of big companies in the US and Europe, including Eircom (now Eir), Kabel Deutschland, Cablecom Switzerland, Verio and Interliant. He has also held senior roles at Ameritech and Sprint International.
Eircom role
He stepped down as chief executive of Eircom in November 2014 after joining the telco two years earlier. During his time at the company it invested heavily in fibre broadband, substantially cut costs, launched a TV offering, acquired 4G spectrum, and rolled out LTE technology. His departure came after an expected stock market flotation of Eircom was cancelled, leading the businessman to decide not to review his contract with the company.
“Ronan and Mark are exceptional technologists as well as business leaders and have created a company I believe will transform, and disrupt the rapidly growing data confidentiality and protection space. Given recent events, we are all aware of the dangers posed by cybercriminals. Getvisibility addresses these threats and enables our customers to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities before they cause harm,” said Mr Hribar.
“With this investment, we can build on the foundation already well established to accelerate growth of customers and technology. I am also incredibly happy to be returning to work in Ireland where I feel a deep connection after my years at Eircom,” he said.
