When Patrick and I first talked to Tim Londergan about Tangibly, his vision and the problem he and the team were setting out to go after blew us away. Over the past year, we have been able to closely partner with them as they developed the idea and can see the customer enthusiasm for Tangiibly’s approach to managing and protecting valuable intellectual property.
Today, we are honored to lead the Seed round for Tangibly as they build an AI-powered platform to help any company identify, protect, and manage trade secrets.
Trade secrets are often thought of as only encompassing special formulas — Coca-Cola’s main recipe or KFC’s secret coating blend. However, trade secret laws protect all business information, processes, products, and other concepts not disclosed to the public.
Trade secrets are some of the most important assets of any company — regardless of size or location — and they are often overlooked and incorrectly identified, managed, protected, and monetized. The total value of trade secrets is about $7 trillion, while trade secret theft is estimated to be $1.7 trillion. This represents a significant opportunity to protect corporate IP portfolios with a platform to organize and manage trade secrets.
Recent statute changes and case law reforms, including the Defend Trade Secrets (2016), the Protect American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA 2023), and similar directives in Europe and Asia, have put new requirements on companies looking to protect their trade secrets. As such, a significant tailwind pushes enterprises to take control of their trade secret processes.
Today, companies manage trade secrets through spreadsheets, shared drives, email, and internal workflow solutions that are insufficient and expensive to maintain. Tangibly’s vision is to be the industry standard for managing and maximizing value for confidential information, starting with trade secrets. The team has built a platform that helps internal and external legal teams identify trade secrets quickly and implement a meaningful process and workflow that works across the enterprise to safeguard these secrets.
Tim and his co-founders, Liat Belinson and Chris Buntel, are an amazing team. Not only are they brilliant technology and product strategists, but they also complement each other well. They are best in class when it comes to knowing this domain, have strong company-building superpowers, and together we believe they can build an enduring and scalable business in this incredibly important category.
Patrick has had the pleasure of working closely with Tim and Chris for many years. He first met Tim in 2003, when he was a young scientist turned founder and entrepreneur, and Chris in 2008, when he was applying his legal and scientific training to the intellectual property field. We are delighted to partner with the team and other investors Spike Ventures, MVP Ventures, Volo Ventures, Holt Ventures, Incisive Ventures — and leading law firms Wilson Sonsini and DLA Piper. And we are excited to help protect the future!
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