Atlanta-based cybersecurity startup Cyble announced Monday (July 31) it has raised $24 million in a Series B funding round spearheaded by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital. Other investors include Spider Capital, January Capital, and Summit Peak Ventures, among others.
The company intended to use the funding to advance its research and development (R&D) efforts, TechCrunch reported.
"This investment stands as a testament to the hard work our team has been investing to execute toward our vision," Cyble co-founder and CEO Beenu Arora said in a statement.
Cyble was said to be doing the impossible as of this report due to the downturn in venture funding for cybersecurity after Crunchbase recently reported it dropped to just slightly over $1.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023, a 63% drop from the same period last year at $4.3 billion.
What is Cyble?
Founded by Arora and Manish Chachada in 2019, Cyble monitors both dark web and "surface web" data to map and attempt to mitigate companies' digital risk footprints. It builds custom threat-hunting solutions for customers. including government agencies and Fortune 50 brands. The firm also claimed to have visibility into over 6,000 "darknet" marketplaces which mostly specialize in illegal file sharing.
Some of its competitors include SnapAttack, an offshoot of Booz Allen with a library of labeled threat data.
To date, Cyble has raised a total of $38.6 million in funding, with its Series B being the first fundraising since February 2022. According to TechCrunch's report, Arora bootstrapped the startup for the first two years.
The Importance of Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence is defined as information gathered from multiple sources about current or potential attacks against an organization that has been analyzed, refined, organized, and used to minimize and mitigate cybersecurity risks.
It also provides a better insight into the threat landscape and threat actors, as well as their latest tactics, techniques, and procedures to enable organizations to be proactive in configuring their security controls to detect and prevent advanced attacks and zero-day threats.
According to TechCrunch, some experts say threat intelligence is becoming an increasingly important component in fighting emerging cyber exploits. In a 2022 Security Magazine survey, 75% of companies have dedicated threat intelligence teams, while two-thirds of the total have dedicated threat intelligence budgets.
However, threat intelligence efforts by companies are hindered by talent issues, with 73% of respondents of the same Security Magazine survey saying they see a "lack of skills" in dealing with threat intelligence as their biggest challenge.
Regarding Cyble's competitiveness, King River Capital investor Zeb Rice said the company was deploying its "groundbreaking" technology as a way of "revolutionizing" cybersecurity.
"[T]he growth and caliber of its customer base stand testament to the global recognition from companies needing best-in-class protection in an ever-evolving and intricate digital landscape," he added.