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Accel Backs CyCognito In $30M Series B To Expand Cyber Risk Tool

CyCognito, which helps identify and eliminate the critical security risks in an organization’s IT ecosystem, secured a $30 million round of Series B funding to expand its unique approach to assessing risk.

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Accel led the round with participation from previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sorenson Ventures and UpWest. This round brings the Palo Alto, California-based company’s total funding to $53 million since it was formed in 2017, CyCognito’s co-founder and CEO Rob Gurzeev, told Crunchbase News. The new funding comes seven months after the company raised an $18 million Series A, according to Crunchbase data.

The company’s founders have backgrounds at intelligence agencies and went out on their own after helping security teams understand how attackers get into the devices within their companies and where a potential compromise could come from, Gurzeev said.

CyCognito platform

“Attackers win most of the time, but their recognizance process takes weeks or months,” he said. “We want to be finding what attractive assets a company has that could be exploited, automate the process for building a robust infrastructure–in hours rather than months–and show value that way instead of deploying agents.”

The new funding will enable CyCognito to expand all of its teams, including sales, marketing and engineering, as well as provide more product development to uncover additional use cases around vulnerability and asset management, Gurzeev said.

On-track investment

Gurzeev said bringing on Accel as an investor shows that the company is on track with its approach. Accel has been the go-to investor for cybersecurity over the last decade, he added.

CyCognito’s investment follows recent fundings by Accel in startups, including a $13.5 million Series A made last week in Privacera, which is developing a platform for companies to manage security and privacy challenges in their on-premise and cloud data platforms. Gurzeev also noted Accel’s legacy of investments including a $200 million Series E in CrowdStrike in 2018, as well as a $50 million Series A funding of Tenable Network Security back in 2012.

As part of the new investment, Eric Wolford, partner at Accel, will join CyCognito’s board.

Wolford said in a written statement that CyCognito’s approach was a fresh take on eliminating a company’s exposure and protecting it from a cyber attack.

“With digital business initiatives playing a fundamental role in whether a company thrives or fails, it is inevitable that some systems are exposed or outside of the company’s direct control,” Wolford said. “The CyCognito platform is essential for companies to ensure optimized business without undue risk.”

Next steps for CyCognito

Meanwhile, after having 10 times the revenue growth in 2019, CyCognito is poised for three or five times the growth in 2020, Gurzeev said. After acquiring dozens of customers in the last three years, the company now has a team of 75 people in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. It is also building partnerships “with some of the most edgy and biggest integrators and partners,” he added.

And, the company has more offerings it will release over the next couple of years to address the end-to-end business process of understanding what assets a company has, what is at risk and remediation of those security weaknesses.

“Companies are using 10 to 15 tools that cost millions of dollars and take dozens of people to deploy them,” Gurzeev said. “We want to change how that is done, since it has not been changed in 25 years, and our clients are excited to help us.”

Product photo: courtesy of CyCognito
Photo: iStock

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