Confidencial Wins Thomson Reuters Momentum AI Pitch Competition

Recognition highlights Confidencial’s novel approach to securing sensitive enterprise data while keeping it usable by people, applications, and AI

MENLO PARK, CA, UNITED STATES, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Confidencial, the data security company that helps organizations control sensitive information wherever it is shared, stored, or used by AI, today announced it has won the Thomson Reuters Momentum AI pitch competition. The win recognizes Confidencial’s innovative technology for one of enterprise AI’s most pressing challenges: putting valuable business data to work without surrendering control of the sensitive information inside it.

Confidencial was selected from nearly 1,400 venture-backed enterprise AI startups and was one of five companies invited to pitch live at Momentum AI in Austin. Co-founder and CTO Karim Eldefrawy, PhD, presented to judges and attendees, demonstrating how enterprises can protect sensitive information at the data layer while keeping documents fully usable for AI, collaboration, and everyday business workflows.

AI Is Changing the Rules of Data Security

The recognition comes as AI fundamentally changes how enterprises access and use data. Gartner estimates that 80 to 90% of new enterprise data is unstructured, including contracts, clinical records, intellectual property, HR documents, and email. Traditional security controls protect the systems where that information lives, and they can lose effectiveness once it is copied, shared, moved beyond the enterprise, or consumed by an AI system. AI agents add a new challenge: even authorized systems can reach information beyond what an organization intended. Among organizations that experienced an AI-related breach, 92% lacked proper AI access controls, according to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report.

“AI has changed the fundamental assumption behind data security,” said Karim Eldefrawy, PhD, co-founder and CTO of Confidencial. “Organizations can no longer assume sensitive information will remain inside a controlled environment. Data will move between people, applications, organizations, and increasingly AI agents. The answer isn’t to stop that movement. It’s to make sure the protection and control move with the data.”

Protection That Travels With the Data

Confidencial builds persistent protection into the document itself. Its technology identifies sensitive information, including personally identifiable information, protected health information, financial data, and intellectual property, and uses patented selective encryption, redaction, or tokenization to protect only what requires it. The rest of the document stays in its native format and works in the tools people already use. Access controls and a record of who used the sensitive information stay with the content, inside the enterprise and beyond it.

That approach matters most for AI. Instead of withholding an entire document because part of it is sensitive, organizations can let AI systems and agents work with the information they are authorized to use, while the sensitive elements stay protected. The Confidencial AI Guard solution applies this protection across enterprise AI workflows, so each person and each agent sees only what their role permits. That closes a common gap: a user restricted from a document can no longer reach its contents through an AI assistant. Every access is logged and auditable.

The result: enterprises can put more of their data to work without giving up control of it.

“Organizations want the benefits of AI, but today they face a difficult decision,” said Stewart Walchli, CEO of Confidencial. “Either they exclude a substantial portion of their data to comply with privacy regulations and policies, or they throw caution to the wind and use it unfiltered, hoping sensitive data doesn’t end up where it shouldn’t. But everyone knows it will. Most organizations are sitting on a wealth of information their AI can’t touch. We let them use it safely.”

Born from DARPA-Funded Cryptographic Research

Confidencial’s technology originated in DARPA-funded cryptographic research at SRI International, where Eldefrawy served as a Principal Computer Scientist. The research was built around two realities: organizations often need to share data selectively, and sensitive data will eventually leave the systems designed to protect it. That work produced the patented selective encryption technology at the core of Confidencial. Today, the company holds 12 granted patents, with three more pending.

From One Workflow to Enterprise-Wide Protection

Confidencial is already used across pharmaceutical, legal, defense, banking, fintech, and other highly regulated, data-intensive environments. Customers typically begin with one high-risk workflow, such as secure document exchange, an AI data pipeline, or third-party collaboration, and then expand into additional Confidencial products as they find more places where sensitive information is moving and being used.

The same persistent protection model helps enterprises address multiple risks:

• AI data governance: Control which sensitive information AI systems and agents can access.
• Third-party sharing: Keep protection and visibility after documents leave the enterprise.
• External breaches: Reduce the value of stolen documents by keeping sensitive content inaccessible.
• Insider misuse: Restrict or revoke access even after information has been shared.
• Compliance: Preserve a traceable record of policy and access events as data moves outside traditional boundaries.

The Momentum AI win adds to a growing body of third-party validation for Confidencial as enterprises rethink data security for a world where information moves across users, systems, partners, and AI.

“Data will keep moving,” Eldefrawy added. “Our job is to make sure control moves with it.”

About Confidencial
Confidencial helps enterprises put sensitive data to work without losing control of it. Built on patented, DARPA-funded cryptographic research from SRI International, Confidencial uses selective encryption to protect sensitive information within documents, files, and data pipelines while preserving native formats and existing business workflows. Protection and access controls travel with the data wherever people, applications, or AI use it, helping organizations collaborate, adopt AI, and share information more securely. The company is privately held and based in Menlo Park, CA.

For more information, visit Confidencial.io.

Kari Ritacco
RedIron PR
kari@redironpr.com
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