Encrypted messaging app Wickr manages to raise $9 million in funding

Wickr, which aims to offer a more secure alternative for private mobile messaging, said Monday that it has closed a $9 million Series A funding round, including investments from Alsop Louie, which led the round, as well as Juniper Networks and the Knight Foundation. Alsop Louie partner Gilman Louie, known for Tetris and In-Q-Tel, is joining Wickr’s board. In addition to the larger investors, a number of other entrepreneurs and hackers have invested both time and money in the company, including former presidential adviser Richard Clarke, Lookout CEO John Hering and Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen. “I am convinced there is a huge market that will make Wickr successful, but moreover, we need it,” Clarke said in a statement.