Former NSA analysts Jay Kaplan and Mark Kuhr have raised $21.25 million in new funding for their company, Synack — a sort of "good-hackers-as-a-service." The Silicon Valley startup's twist is that it hires vetted security researchers (currently from 46 countries), and then pays them to poke holes through its customers' networks — holes that could otherwise be found by bad actors. Kaplan tells Axios why that works:

Why it matters: Synack is catching the eye of major enterprises like Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Singtel, all of which are now investors. Synack will be able to lean on these companies' sales organizations, Kaplan says, adding that they could aid in international growth efforts.