Kusari, a startup in the software supply chain security sector, has recently announced a significant boost in funding.
The company successfully raised $8 million, a sum amassed through a combination of Pre-Seed and Seed Round investments. J2 Ventures took the lead in this funding round, with Glasswing Ventures also playing a pivotal co-leading role. Unusual Ventures, having previously contributed $2 million in Pre-Seed funding, was among the participating investors.
Established in June 2022, Kusari addresses a critical and increasingly costly issue within the tech industry: the lack of transparency in the software supply chain and development lifecycle.
This opaqueness can lead to severe security vulnerabilities, with Cybersecurity Ventures projecting the global annual cost of software supply chain attacks to soar to $60 billion by 2025, and further escalating to a staggering $138 billion by 2031. Kusari’s mission is clear – to bring much-needed transparency to the software supply chain, enabling organizations to swiftly identify and rectify potential weak spots, thereby maintaining robust partnerships and minimising risk exposure.
The founding team at Kusari, comprising Tim Miller, Michael Lieberman, and Parth Patel, brings a wealth of experience to the table, having navigated the complexities of supply chain security and cloud engineering at esteemed institutions like Citi, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Bridgewater Associates, and Raytheon.
Their leadership extends to the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), which amalgamates the most pivotal open-source security initiatives and the corporations and individuals backing them. Kusari is not just about leadership but also about innovation, as evidenced by their development of GUAC (Graph for Understanding Artifact Composition), a tool supported by tech giants such as Yahoo!, Guidewire, and Google.
The heart of Kusari’s technology lies in addressing the intricacies of the modern software supply chain. With most contemporary software relying on a myriad of open-source libraries, understanding the intricate web of dependencies is paramount. Kusari’s GUAC, introduced and validated in the market in 2023, confronts this challenge head-on. By organising software supply chain information into a comprehensive knowledge graph, GUAC has quickly garnered a vibrant community of contributors and significant recognition in the tech world.
The infusion of $8m will fuel Kusari’s ambition to further innovate and refine their software supply chain security solutions. These solutions are designed to empower organisations with actionable insights, reduce incident response times, and alleviate the pressures on security and developer teams.
As Jonathan Bronson, Ph.D., co-founder and Managing Partner of J2 Ventures, aptly put it, “Kusari’s blend of team, technology, and significant adoption, even at this early stage, position them to be a market leader. Our initial indication from government agencies for what they’re building revealed a massive commercial market. GUAC’s potential cannot be overstated.”
Tim Miller, co-founder and CEO of Kusari, emphasised the company’s commitment to revolutionising software supply chain security. “Identifying where vulnerabilities lie in your software supply chain is complex and time-consuming. With the ever-increasing number of vulnerable packages discovered each year, organizations need a single source of truth about their code,”
Miller said. “Kusari will be that source of end-to-end transparency and will bring about insights for users to drive more secure outcomes for their organizations. Our focus is on helping users solve their very real security problems.”
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