Ohanae, which offers ATM-like security for cloud storage, raises six-digit sum from TNF Ventures

Ohanae, a Singapore startup that is offering enterprises and professionals a way to safeguard data on the cloud, has raised a six-digit sum from TNF Ventures, a Singapore-based early-stage fund.

While TNF is under the government’s Technology Incubation Scheme, which co-funds startups along with the private investor, all the money from this round is supplied by TNF.

Altogether, the startup has raised USD 2.4M since inception in 2007. It just received a grant from SPRING TECS, and they’re now seeking a Series A round of USD 5M.

Ohanae founder and CEO Greg Hauw believes his company is ready for primetime due to the proliferation of the BYOD movement, which brought about the need for enterprise-grade security on-the-go. What’s currently lacking is a way for users to protect their files in the event their devices are compromised.

Greg likens his company’s technology to secure banking transactions, people have a “personal” PIN and a “personal” physical ATM card.

The PIN must be used in conjunction with the ATM card to gain secure access to their accounts. Ohanae Connect requires a “personal” passphrase and a “personal” physical device in order to gain access to their encrypted data and Internet accounts.

It’s an attempt to create an extra layer of protection that adds on to what services like Dropbox are already providing, without compromising on convenience.

The product also has an anti-keylogging mechanism built in. It works by storing a unique device ID in its servers that corresponds to a password. Using the ATM analogy, the device ID is like an ATM card that you use together with your PIN.

This means that while hackers may be able to steal the password from the user’s device, they would still need to compromise Ohahae’s system to retrieve the device ID and then decode the encryption key.

While there’s no such thing as a full-proof security system, Ohanae’s solution does appear to make hacking attempts more laborious.

The service is targeted at both individuals and enterprises. Individuals get to use Ohanae for free, while users who want multi-device support must pay USD 1/month. Meanwhile, business users can pay USD 2/month to access a centralized management capability. It claims to already have over 100,000 paying customers worldwide.

The company has evolved to get to where it is today. The last time we spoke to Greg was way back in 2010, when the company was developing a password generation and storage solution called Universal Cloud ID (sort of like 1Password). But while the product and business model has changed, Greg says that the underlying technology is still the same.

TNF Ventures has been very active in funding startups lately. Check out these articles to find out what they’ve been up to.