Cybersecurity startup AttackIQ lands $8.8 million in first round of funding

San Diego-based company aims to bolster its AttackIQ FireDrill platform.
By Bernie Monegain
12:28 PM

Since its launch in 2013, AttackIQ has worked with early adopters in healthcare, government, social media, telecommunications, financial services, biotechnology, and defense industries.

AttackIQ will use the new funding to expand its partner, sales and marketing initiatives, and build out its strategic services and engineering teams.

“For too long security has been a guessing game,” Stephan Chenette, CEO, AttackIQ, said in a statement. “It’s time to bring continuous assurance to enterprise security teams and provide visibility through objective, data-driven decision making.”

Chenette added that can be accomplished with Attack IQ’s disruptive security validation platform, a robust community and extensive integrations.

Chenette and Rajesh Sharma, vice president of engineering, founded AttackIQ in 2013 with the strategic objective of disrupting the $75 billion enterprise cybersecurity industry and redefining the way that security is measured.

The co-founders share the view that securing today’s complex enterprises, which often uses up to 75 individual security products, depends on security teams having effective technologies and processes that integrate seamlessly into their workflows.

[See also: Healthcare IT startups to watch in 2016: Running list of big news.]

Since emerging from stealth mode earlier this year, AttackIQ has helped its customers from mid-markets to large enterprises to test and measure the effectiveness of their security defenses, Chenette said, asserting that the company’s unique community-driven approach helps organizations answer a simple question: “How well are your current security tools, products and processes working?” Answering the question helps identify baseline readiness, overlaps and gaps in defenses.

The Series A round of funding  includes investors from Index Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Telstra Ventures.

“Today cybersecurity is a hot topic in every boardroom discussion. Measuring risk and defensive capabilities and then linking it to business decisions is more important than ever before," said Shardul Shah, partner, Index Ventures. “AttackIQ makes it easier for organizations at all levels of their security program to do this with its FireDrill platform. The purpose-built community and the ability to add and integrate seamlessly to the platform is what separates AttackIQ from the competition in this emerging market.”

“The AttackIQ FireDrill platform makes managing cybersecurity risk easier and more cost-effective allowing companies to continuously test and validate their security infrastructure,” added said Mark Sherman, managing director, Telstra Ventures.

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