As the world becomes increasingly digital, global data storage is needed more than ever. The global cloud storage market alone is projected to reach $161 million in 2025, with a 22% year-over-year growth rate. By 2026, global data storage is forecasted to exceed 200 billion terabytes—the equivalent of giving every person on Earth storage space for 63 million documents.

Huxley Westemeier, founder of Loud Bark Software, saw an opportunity to make a difference in the data storage industry and earlier in 2025 launched Enkrypticom, a solution to reduce cloud storage costs for businesses while increasing security.

“Companies currently face high data storage costs, and adding robust encryption is expensive and can often be complex to implement,” says Westemeier, a 12th-grade student at the St. Paul Academy and Summit School. “Enkrypticom eliminates this dilemma by creating a single, automated step that simultaneously compresses and encrypts data before it ever reaches the cloud, reducing cloud storage costs while providing quantum-resistant security on existing infrastructure.” Translation: Data stored with Enkrypticom is safe from hackers who use the most powerful, sophisticated technology.

Perfecting Enkrypticom’s algorithm to simultaneously achieve a high compression ratio, quantum-resistant security, and a fast processing speed was the biggest technical challenge while developing the solution. “Stronger encryption and compression often require more computational power with existing approaches,” says Westemeier. “We overcame this through a year of iterative development and rigorous internal testing. Now, Enkrypticom is a novel, patent-pending method where compression itself is intertwined directly with cryptography, allowing us to be fast and secure without a compromise.”

Enkrypticom’s research and prototyping phase is complete, passing the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Statistical Test Suite for randomness. The next challenge, says Westemeier, is acquiring validation and beta-testing customers. In the coming months, Enkrypticom will obtain and leverage capital to fund third-party security validation and cover fees for the non-provisional patent filing. By 2026, the goal is to begin partnerships to gather real-world integration data and testimonials before acquiring the first paying clients in Q4.

“Our initial target customers are companies dealing with increasing data storage costs, and particularly those involved in streaming or education services, where privacy is beneficial,” says Westemeier. “We plan to later expand into more regulated industries like health care, finance, and legal after achieving further security validation.”

As Westemeier works toward two major goals for 2026—graduating from high school and getting Enkrypticom’s first paying customers—he sees Minnesota as a “fantastic” place to build. “We are in close proximity to a number of potential customers across the state,” he says of his Minneapolis-based business. “The Twin Cities is a hub for health care, biomedical engineering, education, and finance-related industries. All of these are data-intensive and require strict compliance with security concerns.”

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