XM Cyber is a startup with a differentiated platform that they describe as a ‘game-changer’ product, that simulates cyber-attacks along the entire attack path to an organization’s critical assets, and then provides actionable remediation.
Today, XM Cyber, a Herzliya, Israeli-based security startup that makes a platform that automates the simulation and remediation of advanced persistent threats, is announcing that it has closed a $22 million Series A funding round. The company will use the additional funds on sales, marketing and R&D, including the further building out of a channel of locally-based integrators and MSSPs.
“We have a unique product, and to take that to market we are looking for a unique channel – the best of the best,” said Noam Erez, XM Cyber’s CEO and co-founder.
“We established the company three years ago, with $10 million in seed money, which enabled us to bring in the most talented cybersecurity people in Israel to the company,” Erez said. He indicated that XM Cyber was created with a very specific mission.
“What we see today in cybersecurity is that even though companies are spending more money than ever on it, threats continue to penetrate the security defenses,” Erez indicated. “Our perspective is that today’s very complex networks allow the hacker to make holes, get inside, and get lateral movement, under the radar of most protective methods. We wanted to build a game-changer product that would be one step ahead of the hacker.”
That product is HaXM, a “Breach and Attack Simulation” platform designed to provide automated alignment of red and blue teams to find attackers’ paths to customers’ vital assets, while providing prioritized remediation against the threat.
Noam Erez, XM Cyber’s CEO and co-founder
“We look at the network from the perspective of the hacker, test it from their point of view, and find the hidden vector of attacks, to identify the attack paths to customers’ critical assets,” Erez said. “That’s the first part. The second part of that we do is provide a remediation report that enables a SOC to remedy the problem. We provide them with options, which are very specific and laser-focused. For the future, we are looking at something that would fix the problem automatically.”
Erez indicated that HaXM is designed as a complementary security offering, so works with other solutions.
“There is no silver bullet in this space, and you need to use multiple products for effective defense,” he said.
Out of the gate, XM Cyber sold direct for their first year, to a very select customer base of large financial and infrastructure companies in North America, Europe, Israel and Australia.
“At the beginning, we wanted to go to the most sophisticated companies, to show them the uniqueness of our product, knowing that acquiring them as customers would make it easier for us to sell to others,” Erez stated.
The new $22 million funding round, which includes Macquarie Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Our Innovation Fund, LP and UST Global, brings the total amount of money that the company has raised to $32 million, and will provide the funds to drive their next round of expansion.
“We will use it to expand our sales, where we will be mainly focused on finding partners,” Erez said. “We will expand our market, and we will invest in our R&D, for amazing ideas to bring more interesting features to the product.”
The channel partners who XM Cyber has already recruited are a fairly equal balance of MSSPs and integrators.
“We would like to have good local channels, to reach down into the market to mid-sized companies,” Erez indicated. “We would like to be able to choose the best of them.”
