CipherMode Labs
Los Angeles, US · Founded 2020 · Delaware corporation · 1 known investors
CipherMode Labs, operating as Pyte, builds secure multiparty computation software for analyzing encrypted data without decryption.
Also known as CipherMode Labs, Inc. · Pyte · Pyte Labs · pyte.ai
Founders & leadership
CipherMode Labs was founded in 2020 by Ilya Razenshteyn and Mohammad Sadegh Riazi.
Board
Investors · 1
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$12.2M disclosed across 3 rounds · 2021–2024
▶$5MraisedMay 2024 · 12 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Mohammad Sadegh RiaziExecutive Officer, Director
- Ilya RazenshteynExecutive Officer, Director
- Brynn MoynihanExecutive Officer
- Dean MaiDirector
- Davis TreybigDirector
- Amount sold
- $5M
- Minimum investment
- $4K
- First sale
- Apr 2024
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2020
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$6.7MraisedMay 2022 · 19 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Mohammad Sadegh RiaziExecutive Officer, Director
- Davis TreybigDirector
- Ilya RazenshteynExecutive Officer, Director
- Amount sold
- $6.7M
- Minimum investment
- $10K
- First sale
- Apr 2022
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2020
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$555.6KraisedMay 2021 · 4 investors · Other TechnologyRule 506(b)
- Ilya RazenshteynExecutive Officer, Director
- Fariborz AssaderaghiDirector
- Mohammad Sadegh RiaziExecutive Officer, Director
- Amount sold
- $555.6K
- Minimum investment
- $5.6K
- First sale
- Apr 2021
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2020
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026CipherMode Labs, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based data security company that develops technology for computing on encrypted data without decrypting it at any point in the data lifecycle. Its platform is intended to let software developers and data scientists run analytics on confidential data while preserving confidentiality during the computation itself, so enterprises can use and share data across cloud environments, partners and jurisdictions while remaining compliant and limiting breach exposure. Stated application areas include co-marketing, drug discovery and fraud detection, and the company holds a patent covering its core technology.
The company is also presented under the name Pyte (pyte.ai), described as a secure data collaboration solutions provider whose proprietary secure multiparty computation (SMPC) technology derives from roughly a decade of academic research by co-founders Sadegh Riazi and Ilya Razenshteyn. In May 2022 the company released CipherCore, an open source library implementing a mixed secure multiparty computation protocol approach; it was published under the Apache license and positioned as usable without cryptographic expertise.
Founding story
The company was co-founded by Mohammad Sadegh Riazi, who serves as CEO and holds a Ph.D. in secure computation from UC San Diego where he received a best Ph.D. thesis award and previously founded Project HEAX at Microsoft Research, and Ilya Razenshteyn, CTO, who holds a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT and worked as a senior researcher in Microsoft Research's Machine Learning and Optimization group. Their SMPC technology is described as based on about a decade of the founders' academic research.
Business model
The company provides a data utilization and sharing platform to enterprises, with an open source component (CipherCore) released under the Apache license alongside its commercial secure computation offering.
Traction
The company closed $6.7 million in seed financing in May 2022 and released CipherCore as open source the same month. Its team is described as including six PhDs, three of whom are noted as leading experts in secure computation, and three ICPC gold medalists.
Latest developments
Fundraising notices were filed on 2024-04-25 reporting $4,599,992 sold and amended on 2024-05-28 reporting a cumulative $4,999,991 sold. Personnel updates recorded in September and October 2024 list a vice president of product, a research engineer and a software engineer.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
The company positions itself against other privacy-enhancing computation approaches that it characterizes as either too slow or too difficult to use, and against techniques constrained by developer experience, performance limits or statistical inaccuracy.
Stated differentiators include usability without cryptographic expertise, benchmark-leading computation speed, no reliance on noise addition or trusted hardware, no loss of accuracy, post-quantum security and a patented core technology.
Technology
The core technology is a mixed secure multiparty computation (SMPC) protocol approach that allows computation on encrypted data without decryption. The company states the implementation is written in Rust, requires no noise addition or trusted hardware, offers provable security guarantees, is post-quantum secure, and delivers the fastest computation times against public benchmarks. A patent covers the core technology, and the CipherCore library is open source under the Apache license.
Go-to-market
Enterprises and organizations that need to analyze or share sensitive data across organizations, cloud environments or jurisdictions under privacy and compliance constraints, as well as software developers and data scientists working with confidential data.
Geography
Headquartered at 1110 N. Virgil Avenue, Los Angeles, California.
History
The company filed successive fundraising notices beginning in May 2021, followed by a May 2022 filing corresponding to its seed financing and further filings in April and May 2024. In May 2022 it announced a $6.7 million seed round and simultaneously released the CipherCore open source library. Leadership and staff updates recorded through late 2024 include a chief operating officer, a vice president of product, a research engineer and a software engineer, and the company is presented under the Pyte brand.
Compiled by commissioned research from 5 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsAmended equity-only filing reporting cumulative $4,999,991 sold, with $399,999 incremental.
$5M source ↗
New equity-only fundraising filing reporting $4,599,992 sold.
$4.6M source ↗
Seed financing led by Innovation Endeavors with participation from Pillar VC, the National Science Foundation and several technology executives.
$6.7M source ↗
CipherMode released CipherCore, an encryption-in-use library using a mixed secure multiparty computation protocol approach, open sourced under the Apache license.
New equity-only fundraising filing reporting $555,554 sold.
$555.6K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 1
corporate structure▸Research sources · 5
primary sources listed
- CipherMode Labs raises $6.7 million and launches CipherCore - Help Net Securityhelpnetsecurity.com · web
5 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does CipherMode Labs do?
- CipherMode Labs, operating as Pyte, builds secure multiparty computation software for analyzing encrypted data without decryption.
- Who founded CipherMode Labs?
- CipherMode Labs was founded by Ilya Razenshteyn, Mohammad Sadegh Riazi in 2020.
- Who are CipherMode Labs's investors?
- CipherMode Labs's investors include Innovation Endeavors.
- How much funding has CipherMode Labs raised?
- CipherMode Labs has disclosed $12.2M raised across 3 rounds.
- Where is CipherMode Labs headquartered?
- CipherMode Labs is headquartered in Los Angeles, US.