Basis Theory Raises $33 Million in Series B to Reinvent Secure Data Infrastructure for the AI Age
October 16, 2025
byFenoms Start-Ups
Basis Theory, a trailblazer in secure data infrastructure, has raised $33 million in Series B funding to expand its platform that enables developers and enterprises to securely collect, store, and share sensitive data without compromising speed or compliance. The round was led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from Stage 2 Capital, Moneta VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kindred Ventures, BoxGroup, and Offline Ventures - signaling strong investor confidence in Basis Theory’s mission to redefine how modern organizations handle sensitive information in a rapidly evolving data economy.
Redefining Data Security for a Decentralized, AI-Driven World
As digital ecosystems scale and AI becomes deeply integrated across every workflow, the complexity of data privacy, compliance, and encryption has reached a critical inflection point. Basis Theory is stepping in with a vision that turns data security from a bottleneck into an enabler.
Its platform provides an API-first, developer-friendly framework that abstracts away the complexity of handling PCI, PII, and PHI data, while maintaining regulatory compliance with frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2.
At its core, Basis Theory allows companies to process and analyze sensitive data - like payment information or health records - without ever actually seeing or storing it. Through tokenization, encryption, and access orchestration, developers can build secure applications that handle private data confidently, without the traditional overhead of compliance management.
“The future of data privacy isn’t about restricting access - it’s about enabling trust at scale,” says Colin Luce, CEO and Co-Founder of Basis Theory. “We’re giving organizations the ability to innovate freely, knowing their data foundation is built to adapt and protect.”
A New Paradigm: Privacy as a Platform
Unlike legacy security frameworks that treat privacy as an afterthought, Basis Theory was designed from day one as a Privacy-as-a-Platform (PaaP) solution - an emerging category that sits between compliance and innovation.
Through its modular architecture, Basis Theory lets companies abstract sensitive data into secure vaults, accessible only through policy-controlled APIs. This means teams can build AI models, payment flows, or analytics pipelines without exposing underlying data, solving one of the biggest friction points in modern development.
This architecture not only improves data governance but also enables data interoperability - a cornerstone of the AI-driven enterprise economy.
For enterprises, it means:
- Faster regulatory audits.
- Seamless cross-border data flow compliance.
- Reduced liability in case of breaches.
- Increased customer trust through verifiable transparency.
In essence, Basis Theory is building the trust layer of the modern data stack - and in an age where AI thrives on access to information, that trust is the new currency.
Strategic Insight: The Hidden Advantage of Building Invisible Infrastructure
One of the most valuable insights from Basis Theory’s rise lies in its approach to infrastructure design. The company isn’t building flashy tools for end-users; it’s building invisible infrastructure - systems that silently power some of the most sensitive operations without ever being noticed.
For founders, this offers a key strategic takeaway: sometimes, the most enduring companies aren’t the ones with the loudest products but the ones that embed themselves so deeply into the ecosystem that they become indispensable.
By focusing on developer trust and compliance automation, Basis Theory transformed one of the most frustrating aspects of modern engineering - managing sensitive data - into a competitive advantage.
Their thesis: security shouldn’t slow innovation; it should scale it.
That principle is quietly reshaping how top fintechs, healthtechs, and AI startups are now approaching compliance architecture - not as a cost, but as a growth-enabling layer.
Investor Confidence and Strategic Backing
The $33 million Series B round is backed by an impressive syndicate of investors, combining deep experience across enterprise SaaS, fintech, and data infrastructure.
- Costanoa Ventures, known for early bets in developer-centric startups, led the round.
- Stage 2 Capital and Moneta VC bring strong go-to-market and scaling expertise for B2B infrastructure products.
- Bessemer Venture Partners, a long-time investor in infrastructure and cloud companies, reinforces Basis Theory’s long-term enterprise potential.
- Kindred Ventures, BoxGroup, and Offline Ventures round out the group, bringing operational mentorship and founder-first support.
Together, this investor mix provides more than capital - it provides a blueprint for sustainable growth and scale in one of tech’s most compliance-intensive verticals.
Building for the Next Wave of AI Compliance
The Series B funding will allow Basis Theory to expand its platform’s AI readiness, enabling secure collaboration between enterprises and AI models.
As more companies integrate generative AI and LLMs into workflows, one of the biggest emerging risks is data leakage - where models inadvertently memorize or expose confidential information. Basis Theory’s infrastructure prevents that by creating AI-safe data environments, ensuring models can process sensitive information without compromising user privacy or regulatory standards.
This AI-security intersection represents a massive market opportunity. According to MarketsandMarkets, the data privacy software market is projected to exceed $25 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 33%.
By bridging the gap between secure storage, controlled access, and machine learning applications, Basis Theory is building the data foundation for responsible AI development.
Industry Outlook: The Future of Secure Data Infrastructure
Globally, over 83% of organizations are expected to operate in multi-cloud environments by 2027 (Gartner). As this complexity rises, enterprises are shifting toward data abstraction models - frameworks that let them unify, protect, and govern data across distributed systems.
At the same time, growing regulations like the EU AI Act and U.S. Data Privacy Framework are putting increased pressure on companies to prove compliance, not just claim it.
Basis Theory’s ability to provide auditable, API-driven data governance gives it a strong competitive position in this evolving regulatory landscape. Its potential applications span fintech, healthcare, AI, and any domain where data sovereignty and real-time analytics collide.
The Road Ahead
With this new infusion of capital, Basis Theory plans to accelerate product development, expand its global team, and strengthen its integrations with major enterprise ecosystems. The company also aims to double down on R&D to explore privacy-preserving computation models, including homomorphic encryption and secure enclaves, ensuring future-proof data integrity in the era of decentralized computing.
As AI reshapes how companies innovate and scale, one thing is clear: trust infrastructure is no longer optional - it’s existential.
“We’re entering an era where every company will be a data company,” says Luce. “Our goal is to make sure they can do that responsibly, confidently, and without compromise.”
By building the bridge between compliance and creativity, Basis Theory isn’t just redefining how data is secured - it’s redefining how innovation happens.