Document security provider Confidela raises $9.25M thanks to… Wikileaks?

Securing documents became more relevant after Wikileaks unleashed thousands of confidential documents concerning the U.S. government onto the Internet. Enter Confidela, a provider of software designed to secure documents and make them more difficult to crack unless the reader has permission to view them.

Confidela, designer of the WatchDox document security program, announced today that it has raised $9.25 million in its second round of funding led by Shasta Ventures.

WatchDox basically wraps up a document in a protective layer that requires another user to have permission to read it. The sender has full control over the document and can decide whether to delete it, allow the reader to print it and pretty much everything else. The document is read through a web browser after it has been opened. There are also applications to access WatchDox-protected documents on the iPad and iPhone.

The company has around 3,000 customers, including a number of businesses in the financial services industry that deal with more sensitive information. Other customers include some companies in the semiconductor industry, where intellectual property needs an additional layer of protection. But perhaps the most notable new customers coming to WatchDox are governmental agencies concerned with potentially disastrous leaks following the Wikileaks scandal.

The service can already be integrated into some email services like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook. Part of the funding will be spent on developing a plug-in for Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) software and Microsoft’s Sharepoint software, said Moti Rafalin, Confidela’s chief executive. But the majority of the funding will be used on sales and marketing, he said.

Confidela earlier raised $5.5 million from Gemini Israel Funds and Shlomo Kramer, co-founder of Check Point and Imperva — two other security firms.