Data Masque co-founders Grant de Leeuw and Greg Daniel
Wavemaker Ventures, the early-stage fund of Singapore-headquartered Wavemaker Partners, has led a US$4 million investment round in DataMasque, a New Zealand-founded startup building data de-identification and synthetic data infrastructure for enterprise AI.
Existing investors OIF Ventures and Icehouse Ventures participated in the round, both increasing their positions.
The funding underscores growing investor appetite for tools that help large organisations navigate the tension between AI adoption and data privacy obligations. DataMasque’s platform allows enterprises to use sensitive information — including customer records and call transcripts — for AI model development without that data leaving their own infrastructure.
Paul Santos, co-founder and managing partner of Wavemaker Partners, who joins the DataMasque board as part of the deal, pointed to the company’s demonstrated commercial traction as a key driver of the investment. The firm has helped customers reduce data masking workflows from days to hours and has secured enterprise contracts across financial services, government, and telecommunications sectors globally.
According to Santos, this is a sevenfold speed improvement. “As enterprises feed more data into AI systems, they need a way to protect sensitive information without compromising datasets used for testing and analytics,” he said.
Also Read: The real AI threat isn’t your job, it’s your mind
DataMasque’s customer roster includes New York Life, ADP, Best Western Hotels and Resorts, and One NZ.
Since closing its seed round in late 2023, the Auckland-based company has tripled its headcount and grown annual recurring revenue sixfold. Alongside the fundraiser, DataMasque has launched a capability it describes as a first of its kind: a tool that unlocks unstructured data such as emails, logs, and call transcripts for use in AI and analytics workflows. The company says the vast majority of enterprise data sits in unstructured form and has historically been too privacy-sensitive to activate.
The investment also reflects the strategic importance of Singapore as a target market. DataMasque cited a maturing regulatory environment there, including the 2024 Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI developed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, and early 2026 guidance on agentic AI systems, as creating clear compliance requirements that its platform is designed to meet.
Peter Lilley, co-founder of Instaclustr — acquired by NetApp — has also joined the board.
Grant de Leeuw, co-founder and chief executive of DataMasque, said the funding validates the need for high-fidelity synthetic data to support AI model training and evaluation at enterprise scale.
The proceeds will be used to accelerate growth across key markets, positioning the company as a foundational data infrastructure layer for enterprise AI adoption.
—
Image Credit: Data Masque
The post Wavemaker Ventures leads US$4M round in New Zealand data privacy startup DataMasque appeared first on e27.