Tag Archive for: Funding

Estonia’s BotGuard OÜ secures €12 million in Series A funding to expand global cybersecurity reach

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BotGuard OÜ, a cybersecurity software company based in Tallinn, has secured €12 million in Series A funding led by MMC Ventures, with participation from Tera Ventures, Expeditions Fund, and angel investors including Stefan Lindeberg. The company specializes in helping web hosting providers manage and protect their infrastructure from malicious threats. With this funding, BotGuard OÜ plans to further develop its technology, recruit tech development talent, and expand its sales and marketing teams as it continues to scale globally.

BotGuard is a cybersecurity company founded in 2019, with a global presence and clients across more than 30 countries. The company specializes in developing user-friendly online tools designed to protect businesses from contemporary web threats. Embracing a remote-first culture, BotGuard boasts an international team comprising over 15 nationalities, collaborating on agile projects to enhance internet security for businesses and individuals worldwide. The company has secured funding through various rounds, with notable investors including Tera Ventures and Expeditions Fund.

Nik Rozenberg, CEO and co-founder at Botguard OÜ, says, “Every business should have effective web traffic management, yet there are no affordable solutions focused on the SME segment due to complicated and expensive onboarding processes. Malicious bot traffic can be extremely harmful for businesses – particularly for the likes of e-commerce retailers that depend on their website to operate – and organisations require tools that keep pace with the rapidly-evolving threat landscape. Even neutral web traffic – like some crawler bots – can drive up management costs. We are democratising web security by offering web hosting providers a flexible, easy-to-use, and cost-effective solution that still offers the highest level of control over web traffic. We are excited for this next stage of our growth journey as we continue to innovate and expand into new territories.”

Mina Samaan, Partner at MMC Ventures, states, “Born from the pain of living through this problem, Nik and Denis have built an impressive business, and the incredible traction BotGuard…

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How to ask the board and C-suite for security funding

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Recent guidance published by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and the Internet Security Alliance instructs board members to drive “a culture of corporate cyber responsibility” by empowering CISOs with the influence and resources they need to drive decisions where cybersecurity is effectively prioritized and not subordinated to cost, performance, and speed to market.

Although this sounds like a CISO’s dream come true, it doesn’t mean that boards will suddenly open the purse strings. Responsible to their shareholders, boards and executives will always be hyper-focused on the bottom line. Only now, with liability bearing down on them, they require accurate, risk-based funding requests qualifying the need, total cost of ownership, effectiveness, breach exposure and likelihood, and cost to the business should a breach occur.

Traditionally, CISOs haven’t communicated this information well enough to their boards, Chris Hetner, special advisor for Cyber Risk at the NACD, tells CSO. Hetner, who is also council member on the NASDAQ Center for Board Excellence, points to the July-updated SEC rules for cyber risk management implicating senior leaders in breaches. Board liability for risk is sinking in, he says, and as a result, board directors are rallying around cyber threats.

This trend definitely impacts how CISOs articulate the need for funding their security programs, Hetner continues. “As an investor, I need to know how you’re treating this risk compared to any other risk and why it matters. Juxtapose that with a CISO bringing in highly technical metrics and reports not understood by the board and you see the disconnect. You want to prepare a tailored, business-focused cyber risk report, ideally on a quarterly basis, that converts technical metrics into understandable, business-aligned metrics. Then, you’ll get your funding.”

Don’t go it alone when asking for cybersecurity funding

When it comes to funding requests, CISOs shouldn’t operate in a vacuum. Hetner suggests seeking allies on the board and executive team, including the CFO, and CEO. These people can help CISOs understand the business risk to frame their funding requests around…

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Halcyon Secures $50M Funding for Anti-Ransomware Protection Platform

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Halcyon, a Texas startup building an AI-powered anti-ransomware engine to help organizations ward off data-extortion attacks, has snagged $50 million in financing from prominent venture capital investors.

The company said the $50 million Series A was led by SYN Ventures, an investment firm that makes early-stage bets on cybersecurity companies. Halcyon also took on equity investments from  Dell Technologies Capital and Corner Capital.

The new financing provides a runway for Halcyon to speed up development and adoption of what it is calling a “cyber resilience platform” designed to defeat ransomware and extortion campaigns, according to co-founder and chief executive Jon Miller.

Using a lightweight agent that combines prevention engines with AI models trained solely on ransomware, Halcyon is marketing a platform promising a multi-tiered approach to defeat ransomware.

The layered components include pre-execution ransomware prevention, a feature that uses AI/ML engines to detect and block any known bad executables like off-the-shelf commodity ransomware and passes unknown but suspicious executables to the additional protection layers for further analysis. 

Halcyon has also fitted features to trick ransomware into aborting or revealing the attack by exploiting features hardcoded in the ransomware itself.

“We engineered Halcyon to embrace failure as a core concept of protection. Stopping ransomware requires multiple prevention and detection techniques, all trained extensively on years of actual ransomware attacks,” Miller said. 

Related: SYN Ventures Closes $300M Fund for Cybersecurity Bets

Related: Rapid7 Buys Anti-Ransomware Firm Minerva Labs for $38 Million

Related: Investors Bet Big on Safe Security for Cyber Risk Management

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Computer chip makers must provide child care, other benefits if they want federal funding

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Biden gives remarks at Ohio groundbreaking of Intel computer chip facility

President Joe Biden highlighted a rare bipartisan down payment boosting U.S. manufacturing as he visited the Ohio groundbreaking of a new Intel computer chip facility on Sept. 9, 2022.

WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department is opening the application process for computer chip manufacturers to access $39 billion in government support to build new factories and expand production.

All companies seeking the funds will need to show how they plan to develop a local workforce, with firms getting $150 million or more also required to provide affordable and accessible child care for their workers.

The funding is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last August. Grants, loans and loan guarantees are meant to revive domestic production of computer chips.

Computer chip

FILE – An open smartphone lies in front of an LED wall showing a chip. (Lino Mirgeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)

It’s aimed at sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and manufacturing while minimizing the kinds of supply disruptions that occurred in 2021, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when a shortage of chips shut down factory assembly lines and fueled inflation.

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FILE – Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House on Sept. 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“This is fundamentally a national security initiative,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said as the application process began Tuesday. “We are not writing blank checks to any company that asks.”

The money is meant to support private investment in new factories and can be clawed back if companies use it on stock buybacks instead. Major companies such as Intel, TSMC, IBM, Micron and Texas Instruments have already launched aggressive expansions tied to the support, which will total $52 billion when coupled with funding for research.

Raimondo said that any company that receives support cannot expand its manufacturing capacity in foreign countries that are a source of national security concerns, a restriction that would appear to apply to China. Nor could recipients…

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