Latest news with #AuthMind
Business Journals
22-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Bethesda cybersecurity startup AuthMind raises millions
By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . A Bethesda cybersecurity startup whose clients include several Fortune 100 companies has raised $19.3 million in a seed round that included a repeat investment from tech and consulting giant IBM. Five-year-old AuthMind, which focuses mainly on identity protection, plans to use the proceeds to ramp up hiring and rapidly scale its sales to meet the growing demand for cybersecurity services, CEO Shlomi Yanai said Tuesday. Woodside, California's Cheyenne Ventures led the round, which included participation from existing investors IBM (NYSE: IBM)and San Francisco's Ballistic Ventures. New investors included Vienna-based Blu Venture Investors; New York's Black Opal Ventures; Dover, Delaware's K2 Access Fund; the Jefferies Family Office and Silver Buckshot Ventures — a cybersecurity VC firm founded by former New York Times lead cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth. Yanai founded AuthMind after working for roughly two decades in the cybersecurity industry, including at former McLean cyber firm CYREN and a transaction authentication company he co-founded called Datablink that sold to Seattle-based cybersecurity firm Watchguard in 2017. AuthMind has an engineering office in Pune, India, but maintains its headquarters and go-to-market team in a shared co-working office in Bethesda. It raised $8 million in a pre-seed round two years ago, Yanai said. AuthMind's focus is on preventing hackers from impersonating users to gain access to company systems. The rise of artificial intelligence systems that can act on behalf of individuals has raised additional cybersecurity risks over the past few years, Yanai said. 'We think about identity historically as users — you and me,' Yanai said. 'But what's actually happening is that when you access an application, there's service accounts or additional services even on your computer that operate on your behalf.' His firm closely observes the typical activity of users — human and computer — in order to more quickly detect abnormal behavior that could represent a threat. Now that it has a handful of Fortune 100 companies and other customers using its product, Yanai said the firm decided to raise venture capital dollars again in order to hire a team that could help it accelerate its sales and marketing efforts. It has roughly 40 employees — 30 at its engineering office in India and 10 on the East Coast. With this funding, it will hire another 10 people in the next year in the U.S., including product management and marketing executives. 'Helping organizations to be protected against cyber attacks that are identity-centric is one of the biggest problems today in the industry,' Yanai said. 'Our pipeline is full with Fortune 100 customers and the core problems they are facing today are understanding what identities actually do across the network and protecting all that.'
Axios
22-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: AuthMind raises $19.3 million for identity protection
AuthMind, a Bethesda, Maryland-based identity protection startup, tells Axios that it's raised $19.3 million in seed funding led by Cheyenne Ventures. Why it matters: This highlights a rising cybersecurity threat whereby hackers — both human and machine — mimic verified users to access networks and devices. Logging in vs. breaking in. It's become more common as identity "ownership" infrastructure has become more fragmented, and AuthMind says its tech also can be used to detect insider threats. What they're saying: "We're providing continuous identity observability, knowing what's suspicious because of the identity rather than centering on attacks, explains AuthMind CEO Shlomi Yanai,
