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Startups to Watch: Kognos, Ecomedes

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Crunchbase News typically covers larger funding rounds, however we think these startups are worth highlighting for their interesting approaches despite their smaller raises.

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Kognos

I don’t think there is anyone out there who has not experienced some type of cybercrime related to finances or had some kind of phishing email sent to their account. Probably the same could be said for companies. What would you think if I told you that you could see a cyberattack in real time?

That’s what Kognos is working on. This week, the company came out of stealth mode with $1.8 million in seed funding and touting the “cybersecurity industry’s first autonomous XDR investigator platform” that gives security teams the ability to see an attacker executing a campaign in real-time.

Kognos’ platform showing an attack timeline.

The round was led by Lucas Venture Group, Cyber Mentor Fund and angel investors. The funding was used to build out the product and launch it.

The 3-year-old Santa Clara, California-based startup was founded by CEO Rakesh Nair and uses artificial intelligence to ask thousands of forensic questions per second, mining these relationships to autonomously track malicious users or external actors throughout the network, and present the findings as visual stories, empowering security analysts to respond in real time and significantly reduce dwell time.

“We are now at a place where we felt the product is ready to go,” Nair told Crunchbase News. “In six to 12 months, we will go raise a Series A because we have enough runway.”

Ecomedes

Meanwhile, Ecomedes is working to outfit buildings with cost-effective and sustainable materials. It is going after the global green building materials market that is expected to grow by $187 billion over the next seven years, Environment + Energy Leader reported in June.

This week, the San Francisco-based startup announced a $1.5 million seed round of financing led by new investor Saint-Gobain NOVA and existing investor PivotNorth.

Ecomedes product database.

Kathleen Egan, co-founder and CEO of Ecomedes, said in an interview that the commercial building market itself is poised to be a $1 trillion market. In addition, it is an industry that has a lot of standards, but not a lot of digitalization. There are also added pressures to those construction standards to take into account the current environment of fires, flooding, social distancing and net-zero air quality, she added.

Ecomedes has 750,000 products in its database that are aggregated across building certifications that enable construction teams to see what products are available, customize them and get a price point. The new funding will be used to build out those collaboration and optimization tools.

“This is an area where technology can do a lot,” she said. “We have early adopters, but the whole market has needs and, if we do it right, we will bring sustainability with us.

“Most leading enterprises are making commitments to sustainability in the form of net-zero carbon, fewer toxins, or even certifications like LEED,” Egan added. “Commitments are a great first step, but many of these organizations don’t have a path to operationalize these targets.”

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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