Inrupt Inc., a startup co-founded by worldwide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, today launched a software platform that enterprises can use to build more privacy-friendly applications.

Inrupt was established in 2018 by Berners-Lee together with John Bruce, who had previously led a cybersecurity company called Resilient Systems that was acquired by IBM Corp in 2016. Bruce serves as Inrupt’s chief executive officer, while Berners-Lee is chief technology officer.

The startup’s stated mission is to give consumers more control over the data they share with online services. At the heart of its effort is a technology called Solid, which also forms the basis of the new enterprise platform launched today.

Solid is an open-source software tool that enables users to create data repositories called Pods. They can use these Pods to host information they wish to share with online services and control which files each service may access. The software provides the ability to to revoke an application’s access to information as anytime, as well as specify whether applications are allowed to edit files or only view them.

Inrupt provides a software development kit that enables companies to integrate their services with Solid. Its newly introduced enterprise platform, Solid Enterprise Server, is a ready-to-use backend for powering Solid-based services. The offering provides end-to-end web traffic encryption, access controls and an auditing tool for operational visibility. 

There’s also a set of management capabilities to help with day-to-day maintenance. Inrupt says Solid Enterprise Server comes with a backup and restore mechanism, monitoring features and integrations that allow enterprises to plug the software into their information technology automation tools.  

“Today, business transformation is hampered by different parts of one’s life being managed by different silos, each of which looks after one vertical slice of life, but where the users and teams can’t get the insight from connecting that data,” Berners-Lee wrote in a blog post today. “Meanwhile, that data is exploited by the silo in question, leading to increasing, very reasonable, public skepticism about how personal data is being misused. There had to be a better way. The Solid architecture provides that better way.”

Solid Enterprise Service is launching after an initial pilot that included the participation of the BBC, the Flanders Government in Belgium, NatWest and the UK’s National Health Service. The National Health Service is using the platform to develop tools that will give patients more control over their medical data. The BBC and NatWest, meanwhile, are exploring privacy-enhancing features for their own user bases.

Inrupt’s roster of high-profile early adopters will give Solid Enterprise Server, as well as the upstream Solid tool, valuable market validation as the startup works to win more customers. The fact that the National Health Service is among the early adopters signals that Inrupt plans to target not just traditional enterprises but also organizations in highly regulated sectors. Companies in those sectors often work with sensitive user data such as medical records that could particularly benefit from increased privacy.

Inrupt has raised more than $10 million to date.

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