CFUIS and Startups

what is CFIUS? CFIUS stands for the “Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States”. The Committee is authorized to limit certain foreign investments in U.S. businesses if the Committee determines that the transaction raises a national security risk. This issue is quite complicated; the Committee has very broad power. There are certain exceptions as well. so it makes sense to engage a lawyer for that matter. A key focus of CFIUS and the implementing regulations is on investment by foreign persons in so-called Technology, Infrastructure and Data (TID) businesses. It is important for companies to determine if they have “critical technology,” “critical infrastructure” or “sensitive personal data” for CFIUS purposes. “Identifiable data” refers to data that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity –Aggregated or anonymized data will be treated as identifiable data if any party to the transaction will have the ability to disaggregate or deanonymize the data; It does not include encrypted data, unless the U.S. business has the means to de-encrypt the data.; Broad definition of sensitive personal data, focused on personal, financial, and healthcare information of U.S. citizens. So generally investments in these types of companies definitely require CFIUS filing if you have a foreign investor.