Australian cybersecurity startup Kasada has raised $2.5m to expand its footprint in the US.
The company has raised the capital from two Australian venture capital firms, Our Innovation Fund and the Reinventure Group.
Kasada, which detects and mitigates malicious web traffic, said it will use the money to extend its US footprint, bolster market relationships. It will also upgrade Polyform, the company’s real-time bot detection and mitigation platform for websites and web applications.
The platform protects websites and web applications from user account takeovers, click fraud, data-scraping attacks and other attacks that significantly disrupt user experience of websites. Polyform also claims to reduce bot-related network bandwidth and computing infrastructure costs, and improves the effectiveness of digital marketing.
Kasada was founded three years ago by Sam Crowther in 2015, having previously worked as a security consultant at Macquarie Group.
Crowther said: “As cyber criminals increasingly use automation to attack websites and web applications, automation is therefore the key to keeping up where human analysts cannot.”
“Kasada provides protection against the dark web’s inventory of stolen user credentials and automated fraud tools. In today’s highly connected world, a secure digital experience is key to building and retaining trust. Smart businesses know cybersecurity, data protection and customer experience are inextricably linked.”
Following the funding, David Shein, a founder and general partner of Our Innovation Fund, will join Kasada’s board of directors. Danny Gilligan, Co-founder and managing director at Reinventure Group, will also advise the Kasada board.
“Kasada improves business decision making, and the bottom-line costs of computing infrastructure,” Crowther added.
“Our customer data shows bot traffic can consume 90% or more of a company’s bandwidth and computing resources. Not only does this waste money, it distorts marketing and web analytics.”
With $50m under management, Our Innovation Fund invests at the seed stage ($250k-$1m) through to Series A ($2m-$5m). Its portfolio includes Enboarder, which creates engaging onboarding experiences, Assignar, a cloud-based compliance, asset and workforce management platform, and EFTsure, which has developed a patent pending real time authentication and Payee Management platform.
Reinventure makes investments from seed through to Series A. The VC has previously backed bitcoin wallet and platform Coinbase, crime prevention software company Auror and business loans provider Valliant Finance.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
