CloudSEK Secures $19 Million in Funding to Advance AI-Powered Predictive Cybersecurity Platform

CloudSEK Raises Funds to Scale AI Predictive Cybersecurity Platform

MassMutual Ventures and Infexor Ventures participated in the funding CloudSEK announced the completion of its Series A2 and B1 funding rounds on Tuesday. The cybersecurity platform said that it has raised $19 million (roughly Rs. 162.3 crore) in the combined funding round. The round witnessed participation from both Indian and US-based investors, the company stated. While new investors have been onboarded, the existing backers continue to be part of the company. CloudSEK said that the funds will be used to scale its artificial intelligence (AI) models and integrate the technology into its platform. In a press release, the AI-powered cyber threat prediction and intelligence platform announced that it has raised funding acorss its combined Series A1 and B1 round. While the company did not mention who led the round, the funding witnessed investors such as MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, Tenacity Ventures, as well as strategic investors, including Commvault. The company's existing backers including Meeran Family (founders of Eastern Group), StartupXSeed, Neon Fund, and Exfinity Ventures are continuing to hold stake in the firm, and are not exiting. The latest funding round comes four years after its Series A round, which was led by MassMutual Ventures. CloudSEK raised $7 million (roughly Rs. 59.8 crore) in its 2021 funding round and it raised $1.9 million (roughly Rs. 16.2 crore) in its pre-Series A round in 2018. CloudSEK stated that the newly raised capital will be used for product innovation and global expansion. The main focus will be on scaling its AI models and platform integration. Notably, the company has an in-house predictive cybersecurity platform for threat detection and intelligence. The company claimed that instead of responding after a breach, it identifies initial attack vectors (IAVs), which are the earliest signs of a potential breach. These include leaked credentials, exposed application programming interfaces (APIs), or compromised vendors. "Today, over 60 percent of our net new revenue comes from international markets, with the US emerging as our fastest-growing region. We've achieved this scale while staying cash flow positive," said Rahul Sasi, Co-Founder and CEO of CloudSEK. Notably, CloudSEK was founded in 2015 by cybersecurity researcher Rahul Sasi. It is said to have more than 250 enterprises as clients across banking, healthcare, technology, and the public sector.

Cybersecurity startup Cloudsek raises $19 million in funding led by Tenacity Ventures, Commvault

Predictive cybersecurity Cloudsek has raised $19 million in a fresh funding round led by Tenacity Ventures and Commvault. Others participating in the round include Inflexor Ventures, MassMutual Ventures and Prana Ventures, along with some strategic investors. Founded in 2015 by Rahul Sasi, Cloudsek uses its artificial intelligence (AI)-backed stack with 18 applications to predict and mitigate cyber threats. The startup will use the capital for product innovation, global expansion and doubling down on existing international markets like the US, UAE and Asia Pacific, cofounder and CEO Rahul Sasi told ET. "Today, most of the cyber threats originate from human beings. In the next few years, they will be orchestrated and planned by AI. So, humans would need smarter solutions to defend against them," Sasi said. Cloudsek's technology identifies initial attack vectors, such as leaked credentials, exposed APIs or compromised vendors, as opposed to tools that respond after a cyberattack incident. "Our version of threat intelligence is predictive, not forensic," he explained. The startup has over 250 customers, including Fortune 500 companies, across banking, healthcare, technology and the public sector. It has so far raised $30 million. "Today, over 60% of our net new revenue comes from international markets, with the US emerging as our fastest-growing region. We have achieved this scale while staying cash flow positive," Sasi said, adding that Cloudsek is growing 70% year-on-year. It also uses an AI-backed command centre, Nexus, trained on open source data and streamlines it in one place. Through this platform, security teams can access and analyse intelligence in real time and identify attack patterns and vulnerabilities across their digital ecosystem. The AI platform, trained via large language models and multi-language models, also provides cyber risk quantification through which companies can assess potential financial losses and regulatory impacts. Sasi said the rise of cybercrime is related to geopolitical tensions as well. "There are wars happening right now. You will see every time the economy goes down, cybercrime goes up," he said. He added that the preventive cybersecurity market was earlier dominated by American or Israeli companies, however, India has now come to play a significant role in it.

CloudSEK Bags $19 Mn In Funding

The startup claims that International markets have emerged as the biggest revenue generator for them with the US contributing 60% to its net revenue AI-powered cyber threat prediction and intelligence startup CloudSEK has secured $19 Mn (around INR 162 Cr) across its Series A2 and B1 funding rounds. The round saw participation from a mix of India and US-based investors, including MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, Tenacity Ventures and strategic investor Commvault. Existing backers Meeran Family, StartupXSeed, Neon Fund and Exfinity Ventures also continued their support. The company plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to fuel its product innovation and global expansion, with a focus on advancing its AI models and platform integrations. In today's digital world, businesses are prone to cyber threats posed by the surface web, deep web, dark web and internet-exposed infrastructure. To address these challenges, Rahul Sasi founded CloudSEK in 2015 which helps businesses to monitor their systems and digital infrastructures and predict cyber threats through its SaaS platform coupled with its AI-driven tech stack. Unlike traditional cybersecurity solutions, the Singapore and Bengaluru-based startup claims to identify initial attack vectors (IAVs), the earliest signs of a potential breach such as leaked credentials and exposed APIs. "We built CloudSEK to predict the initial attack vector and stop threats before they hit the headlines," said Sasi. International markets have emerged as the biggest revenue generator for the startup as it mints about 60% of its net revenue from overseas. "Today, over 60% of our net new revenue comes from international markets, with the US emerging as our fastest-growing region," Sasi added. Back in 2021, the startup raised $7 Mn in its Series A funding round led by MassMutual Ventures to fuel its global expansion efforts. Back then, CloudSEK said it would use the capital to accelerate its sales and marketing efforts across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America. CloudSEK competes with the likes of listed cybersecurity startup TAC Securities, Astra Security and WhizHack. It aims to grab its share in the world's cybersecurity market which is projected to become a $562.72 Bn opportunity by 2032.