Exclusive: Cyber startup SpecterOps lands $8.5M investment from Ballistic Ventures
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A cybersecurity startup that helps companies think like the hackers they're trying to fight has secured an investment from some of the industry's most well-known investors.
Driving the news: Ballistic Ventures — a cyber-focused venture capital firm founded by Kleiner Perkins general partner Ted Schlein, Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia and former AT&T executive Barmak Meftah — is investing $8.5 million in SpecterOps as a part of the startup's Series A round.
- The investment, which was first shared with Axios, adds to SpecterOps' previously announced $25 million Series A round led by Decibel.
Why it matters: Most organizations tend to prioritize cyber defense in their security budgets dedicated to erecting barriers to block hackers from breaking in, such a firewalls and identity management tools.
- But SpecterOps, which was was founded in 2017 by a group of mostly former military hackers, instead develops tools to help companies simulate attacks and develop so-called red teams at their companies who attack their own networks to find weak points.
The big picture: Some of the organizations using SpecterOps' tools include the University of Texas at Austin, Capital Group and Woodside Energy, according to a press release.
- The startup also provides trainings at conferences like Black Hat, and releases free, open-source tools that help red teams fend off identity-focused cyberattacks on their companies' networks.
What they're saying: "It's really rare to find companies these days that don't take tens of millions of dollars of venture funding upfront to get to scale," Meftah told Axios.
- "But to the team's credit they got it off the ground self-funded in a high-escape velocity way, which we were very attracted to."
Of note: Mandia, who led Ballistic's investment in SpecterOps, will become a non-voting member of the company's board as part of the funding deal.
- Many of SpecterOps' employees used to work at Mandiant, prompting the connection between the company and Mandia, Meftah told Axios.
Details: The additional Series A funding will be used to hire new sales and marketing staff to support SpecterOps' enterprise product, as well as invest in further research and development, CEO Dave McGuire told Axios.
- The company reached 40 customers without outside funding or a sales team, "which kind of left us in some interesting spots," he said.
- McGuire is also eyeing expanding the company's touchstone enterprise product, BloodHound Enterprise, to work with different systems. Right now, the tool is designed to shut down possible attack paths only on Microsoft's Azure and Active Directory.
