The popularity of online workspaces has drastically increased over the years. Workers turn to online platforms to store the important documents necessary for their jobs.

However, behind this seemingly innocent approach, lie thousands of threats of cyber-criminals. Your data can be easily be abused for unlawful activities, and there needed to be a platform that guarantees personal safety and others’.

Stefan, Ioana, Rick, and Charles spent their lives surrounded by IT equipment, so they understood some things about the dangers of the online world. That’s why they constructed a platform called Persona that will make sure that all data remains personal.

Persona is a company that offers solutions for identity management, through the latest data protection programs. It gives the individual the whole power and control over their data and secures that there is no access to their private information.

Interested to know the story of how 4 inventors managed to guarantee security to so many companies? Read down below.

First Two of the Four

Stefan Neagu was born in Bucharest, Romania in the early 1990s. He grew up in a fairly modest household and needed little to satisfy his needs. The Naegus were a religious family first, and all other things fell second. Because Stefan was used to living modestly, he grew a certain fascination with agriculture, and this would remain for the rest of his life.

Young Stefan was an outdoor kid, who loved animals and nature dearly. Even though he loved agriculture, he followed his parents’ advice and enrolled in the Tulcea Theological Seminary in 1994.

Rick Song was born on the other side of the world, in San Francisco to a fairly well-off family. Rick had genius written all over him, and his parents speculated that he would turn out a huge success. He was good at outsmarting people and had a natural talent for debating. Once he started elementary school. it was evident that he possessed great talents for mathematics, and could solve high-level equations at very early stages.

After years of excelling in different spheres, Rick enrolled at Rice University, with high regard to earning himself a bachelor's in computer science.

Second Two of Four

Somewhere around the late 1980s, the world was blessed with yet another genius called Charles Yeh. Charles, like Rick, was born in San Francisco to a family of successful business-oriented individuals. Charles had a certain affinity towards computers and video games.

He could not put together how he could control characters that he just saw on television. This is where his great adoration towards computers and engineering sparked up.

Nothing could ever overpower his admiration towards IT sciences, and he proved so when he enrolled in Brown University to study computer sciences and business in 2010.

Ioana Alexandra Frincu was born in Bucharest, Romania in the late 1980s. Ioana was born to stand out from the crowd and that was evident from her early years. She was communicative and highly intelligent, being able to discuss issues of morals from a young age.

Ioanna developed a fascination with debating and would interfere in the political discussion brought up by the family. Ioana also had a certain talent for business, which made her a strong leader. At the start, she had a desire to teach and share her wisdom with others, so she enrolled in Bucharest Politechnica University. Ioana snatched a teaching bachelor, but she quickly enrolled to score another degree. This time a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

Building a Reputation

After finishing the theological summary, in 2003, Stefan quickly enrolled in Eden Tourism Management University, where he earned himself a bachelor's degree. It was after this period that Stefan felt like his talents with computers were left unused, so he volunteered and then got a job at Terra Dent. His experience in data got him an opportunity to work as a system engineer in Tehnodent. After that, Stefan worked as an Infrastructure officer, Innovation Enabler, and finally a co-founder. This was Stefan’s first attempt at business and he founded Cloudfinity in 2012. Cloudfinity had some of the breaking points that today’s Persona consists of, but it was unknown then. The app collects all cloud storage on users’ accounts into a single, larger space. He called it the ‘internet hard drive’.

While Stefan was busy making a name for himself, Rick did not rest either. After completing his studies at Rice University, Rick Song scored a job at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2012 as an engineer. A year after working in the company, Rick scored an even greater chance when he got an invitation to Square. He was known as the company’s great engineer and he steadily climbed to the top. He felt like he and his might could accomplish a lot more than just engineering. This idea staggered until he met his future co-workers.

Step by Step

After finishing at Brown, Charles worked to create a reputation for himself as a game development consultant. It seemed like his dreams came true when he worked for FaceChipz and Mr.Nussbaum, but his biggest milestone was hit when he earned a position as an intern in Zynga.

Zynga opened many doors for Charles, and he worked hard as an engineer to reach the top. Charles thought he struck gold when he finally got a job at the just starting DROPBOX, as the technical lead in charge.

Ioana’s fate to be greater than life was on its way to fulfilling. After earning a master’s degree in engineering, Ioana moved to London to study political sciences. This was an ode to her younger self, as through this opportunity she will get to share her opinions.

Through the years, Ioana did not stay silent, nor still, and she pumped up her resume. She worked as a Business Transformation Consultant at IBM, Data Analytics Engineer in PTC, and as a senior advisor at Beyond Enterprises. Ioana had experience in every sphere, including everything from computer sciences to business deals. The world was in the need of a powerful woman leader and she was just the right choice for the trio.

Meeting and Launching

The four multi-talented individuals met in Bucharest, where Rick and Charles were visiting from the States. Rick and Charles previously met while working at Square and shared some ideas that could bring their plan to action. At the cocktail party, a mutual friend introduced the foreigners and the rest was magic. All consulted over ideas on blockchains, cases of stolen identity, cyber thieves, and more.

They talked about data breaches and found that many companies that circulate with information don’t prioritize identity verification. This is when they decided that the world needs a platform to keep the world’s information safe from prying hands, and thus Persona was born. The digital identity platform was launched in 2017, and founded in Bucharest. Persona offers small and large-scale businesses a safe place where they can keep their identity documents, as well as control what goes in and out.

Persona gives the individual the power to leverage blockchains, so the data is safe from breach.

They found that identity is crucial to account recovery and verifications and ensuring safety was Persona’s main goal. Persona used many innovative methods in its constructions, including using biometrics, AI, real-time evaluation, and government document verification. Through their AI systems, users can verify their accounts and be granted permission to enter.

Persona(l) Milestones

At first, not many were interested in a safe-keeping digital platform. The fear of cyber-criminal was not yet very prominent to larger companies and businesses, but it turned out that they needed the services after all.

The first few milestones were reached in 2020 when in August, Persona raised $17.5M from investors like Coatue and First Round Capital. In May of 2021, Persona raised a whopping $50M from Index Ventures. This meant that the company was getting the attention and recognition it deserved. The good word continued spreading, as on the 15th of September, Persona raised another $150M from the Founders Fund.

There was another milestone reached by Persona in the year 2021 when Bloomberg included the company as one worth $1.5 billion.

Persona, Today

Today, Persona is headquartered in San Francisco, California, the homeland of Rick and Charles. Stefan and Ioana took the Persona blockchain, remaining in Bucharest. The company has from 11 to 50+ employees who work tirelessly to keep internet data safe from predators.

Before reaching many industries and drawing a pool of attention, Persona really had to make a name for itself by shaking off competitors like IntSig OCR Solutions, Pipl, and SheerID, among others.

Persona has passed four funding rounds and has scored a total of $217.5M from 12 different investors. Some of the most notable include Coatue, Bond, Index Ventures, and many more.

Persona also has an impressive resume of clients like Brex, Postmates, Sonder, and Square.

The investors plan on spreading the company’s wings to fields in different industries. Persona already services customers from the hotel, food delivery, and fintech industries.

The four co-founders from different areas of the world came together to bring the safest environment for individual data. Persona wants every person to feel empowered when they come to work and have control of their digital footprint.

By keeping their data safe, every company’s employee can realize their full potential. By bringing attention to the importance of data, Persona is on its way to building a more humane internet!