You know your personal information is valuable, but are you willing to pay to keep it private?



A growing number of start-ups think so, and many are betting consumers will pay at least something to keep their data away from prying eyes.

Surveillance and online privacy are a big topic of conversation at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) this year. Among the speakers addressing the topic will be WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who will speak live via video stream.



"The next generation of start-ups, those in the next 10 years that will survive, will be the ones that put security first," said Nico Sell, CEO of encrypted messaging app Wickr.



Sell's company uses military-grade encryption technology to send text, photos and even videos between users, and has no access to the messages sent.

The company now sends a million messages a day across 190 countries since its launch almost two years ago, Sell said. On Monday, the company announced it had raised $9 million in Series A funding from Alsop Louie Partners and other investors.



Since Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, the company has seen a 600 percent jump in the number of people who sign up each day to use its app.



"When Whatsapp first launched, you didn't have hackers targeting messaging apps daily. Now you do," Sell said. "I think this kind of messaging will be bigger than Skype."

(Read more: Post Snowden, secure smartphones on the rise)