10 Tech Startups Raise VC Funding to Advance Cyber-Security Efforts

Venture capitalists continue to invest in cyber-security startups, funding at least 10 companies in March 2018. The largest amount raised during the month was a $53 million round of funding that went to fraud prevention vendor Sift Science. Netsparker, meanwhile, raised $40 million in new funding as it looks to advance its web application security software. Another large round of funding went to behavioral biometrics startup BioCatch, which announced that it raised $30 million to help advance its efforts to improve digital identity. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the security vendors that raised money in February 2018.

On March 6, Synk announced that it raised $7 million in a Series A round of funding to help support the company’s open-source code security scanning efforts. “Security controls must adapt to the new pace open source and cloud dictate,” Guy Podjarny, CEO and co-founder of Snyk, stated. “We’re relying on strangers’ code to run the most sensitive aspect of our business, and do so at neck-breaking speed.” 

Also on March 6, patch management and endpoint protection startup Automox announced that it raised $2 million. “Poor patch management and misconfigured endpoints represent 80 percent of a company’s attack surface, yet both are preventable,” Jay Prassl, Automox’s founder and CEO, said. “Our mission is to give IT managers a complete and intelligent view of their endpoint vulnerability, and the means to automate patch deployment and configuration changes.”

Web application security scanning software vendor Netsparker announced on March 8 that it raised $40 million in a new round of funding. “Netsparker’s solution combines unique Proof-Based Scanning Technology with enterprise workflow tools, making it the only scalable web security solution on the market,” Ferruh Mavituna, CEO of Netsparker, stated.  

Behavioral biometrics startup BioCatch announced a $30 million round of funding on March 12 to help advance its efforts to improve digital identity. “BioCatch helps to answer the question, ‘who are you’ in an online world where fraudsters operate with the legitimate credentials of others, making it very hard to distinguish them from authorized users,” Howard Edelstein, BioCatch’s CEO, said.

On March 14, Luminate announced that it raised $14 million in a Series A round of funding to help advance the company’s platform for security access to applications in hybrid clouds. “Luminate provides a unified security stack on all environments that allows only point-to-point, ad-hoc user access to specific corporate resources, wherever they are hosted. At no point in time is the corporate network exposed,” Luminate CEO Ofer Smadari stated. “Our platform deploys in less than five minutes and, once in place, provides full visibility and complete governance of users’ actions when accessing corporate resources.”

Also on March 14, Solebit announced it raised $11 million in a Series A funding round. Solebit’s core SoleGATE Security Platform is powered by the company’s patented DvC malware detection engine. “Attackers still possess the edge, particularly in zero-day attacks, despite considerable security investment,” Boris Vaynberg, CEO of Solebit, stated. “DvC assumes that there is no legitimate reason for executable code to be present in any data file.” 

On March 20, Virsec announced it raised $24 million in a Series B round of funding to help advance the company’s security platform for reducing application threats. At the core of Virsec’s platform is the company’s Trusted Execution technology, which aims to detect and stop memory attacks in real time. “With our deep understanding of process memory, control flow, and application context, we have developed a revolutionary solution that stops attacks in their tracks, where businesses are most vulnerable—within applications and processes,” Atiq Raza, CEO of Virsec, said.

Sift Science announced on March 21 that it raised $53 million in a Series D funding round. Sift Science’s technologies provide machine-learning powered fraud prevention and risk management capabilities. “Our Digital Trust Platform already protects world-leading digital brands from fraud,” Sift Science CEO and co-founder Jason Tan stated. “This investment will help us strengthen our global alliances and introduce our award-winning platform to enterprise organizations that rely on ineffective legacy fraud solutions.”

On March 27, Kenna Security announced its $25 million Series C funding round to help the company advance its cyber-risk technology platform. “Strong market demand has validated Kenna’s risk-based approach to vulnerability management with CISOs, security teams, and IT operations staff leveraging Kenna’s machine learning and data science to proactively manage cyber risk,” Karim Toubba, CEO of Kenna Security, stated.

Account takeover prevention (ATO) technology startup SpyCloud announced that it closed a $5 million Series A round of funding on March 28. “There isn’t a company in the world that doesn’t run the constant risk of having its employee or customer accounts exposed, and that leads to a host of other issues,” Ted Ross, CEO and co-founder of SpyCloud, stated. “The only chance businesses stand against these increasingly-proficient criminals is to know as soon as possible which accounts have been exposed and to take preventative measures well before credentials make it onto the dark web.”