AttackIQ was founded in 2013 and entered the EvoNexus Incubator that same year. During their incubation the team created the foundation of their first security product called FireDrill, software that provides a continuous security testing platform to challenge existing host, network and cloud infrastructures to help organizations safely test, measure, and perform security validation and improve their defense in depth strategy. The founding team had deep experience in cyber security through their work at WebSense, an early leader in cyber security. In 2015 AttackIQ graduated from EvoNexus with their first venture capital round and early customer trials.”

“AttackIQ exemplifies the high-quality talent residing the San Diego region that developed from the foundational work performed local government research labs and early commercial security companies like HNC, WebSense, ID Analytics and FICO.”

— Rory Moore, CEO & Co-Founder of EvoNexus: Co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor & Silicon Wave

Funding to Meet Increasing Customer and Ecosystem Demand, Fuel the Broadest Coverage of MITRE ATT&CK

SAN DIEGO, CA –(May 29, 2019) – AttackIQ™, the leader in the emerging market for continuous security validation, today announced $17.6 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures and existing investors including Index Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Telstra Ventures. This brings AttackIQ’s total funding to approximately $35 million. The company will use the funds to continue development of its continuous security validation platform, increase hiring across all functional areas and further expand field operations. AttackIQ also announced that Brian Byun, partner of Khosla Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors.

“Since our initial investment in AttackIQ, we have seen the company achieve clear leadership in operationalizing the MITRE ATT&CK™ framework,” states Shardul Shah, partner at Index Ventures and AttackIQ board member. “We are proud to support the management team of AttackIQ. The combination of an obsessive focus on customers, category leadership, and significant momentum will set us up for success in our next chapter of growth.”

The MITRE ATT&CK framework acts as a playbook for the cybersecurity industry, offering a vast knowledge base that allows organizations to clearly see the steps of complex attacks and what procedures are linked to a specific adversary behavior. This cybersecurity lexicon levels the playing field for security teams, letting analysts and purple teams see specific trends between attacks and adversary styles. It allows security executives to think systematically about the adversary environment in which they must establish a security program and to determine if security dollar spend is effective in preventing or detecting all known attacker behaviors. With the broadest implementation of the ATT&CK framework, AttackIQ provides enterprises of all sizes the ability to automate the assessment of their cyber readiness.

“AttackIQ’s unique approach fits our view that effective enterprise security programs require an objective, continuous, and machine-driven approach to pressure test and validate the sprawl of security products and controls,” states Brian Byun, partner of Khosla Ventures. “We believe this market opportunity is huge and that AttackIQ is well positioned to lead the market.”

“AttackIQ is on a mission to fix enterprise security,” states Brett Galloway, CEO of AttackIQ. “We believe that security matters very deeply. A successful cyber attack on critical infrastructure would be devastating. Yet the effectiveness of enterprise security controls is often poor. The missing ingredient is systematic feedback on effectiveness. The best way to deliver this feedback is to emulate attacker behavior and see what the security controls do – or, all too frequently, what they don’t do. AttackIQ provides enterprises the information necessary to move from security guesswork to successfully managing the cybersecurity risks that they face, both today and into the future.”

About AttackIQ 

AttackIQ, a leader in the emerging market of continuous security validation, built the industry’s first platform that enables red and blue teams to test and measure the effectiveness of their security controls and staff. With an open platform, AttackIQ supports the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a curated knowledge base and model for cyber adversary behavior used for planning security improvements and verifying defenses work as expected. AttackIQ’s platform is trusted by leading companies around the world. For more information visit www.attackiq.com.

About Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures provides venture assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs working on breakthrough technologies. The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. With over five billion dollars under management, the firm focuses on a broad range of areas including consumer, enterprise, education, advertising, financial services, semiconductors, health, big data, agriculture/food, sustainable energy and robotics. Khosla Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif.

“Approved was founded up in San Francisco after my cofounder Navtej Sadhal and I left the online real-estate brokerage, Redfin. We quickly realized we could build a team and launch the company where the sun was always shining, and where we could get the support we needed in the form of startup incubator, EvoNexus.

During our two-year incubation at Evo, we built the core technology, grew our real estate following through social media and content marketing, added a team of San Diego professionals, and launched our digital mortgage platform. We fundamentally transformed the mortgage origination process using technology to streamline a tedious and frustrating experience, and brought it into the modern age.

With the help of EvoNexus’ domain expert mentors, the Approved team grew in size, raised capital and secured its first mortgage lender clients. Just after graduating from the program, Approved’s milestones within EvoNexus caught the eye of Credit Karma who acquired us last year in Q3 of 2018. I look back on my time with the program, my mentors, and my fellow companies fondly. EvoNexus is not just building companies, it’s building a community.”

—Andy Taylor, GM at Mortgage at Credit Karma; Former CEO at Approved

(Credit Karma acquired Approved, May 2018)

2018 EvoNexus FinTech Company Acquisitions

Previous EvoNexus FinTech Company Acquisitions

Current EvoNexus FinTech Portfolio Companies

ABOUT THE EVONEXUS FINTECH INCUBATOR

“SOCAL’S PREMIER FINTECH INCUBATOR”

The new incubator will serve as the premier SoCal center for FinTech innovation with startups focusing on technology areas that will impact financial services companies of all sizes and the customers they serve.

The incubator will leverage EvoNexus’ world class domain expertise and operational experience, a network of global technology leaders that serve on its board and committees, and its strategic partners to prepare portfolio companies to go to market.

The incubator is set to open its doors in May 2019  to a new 6,000 square foot Class A office space in San Diego provided by California’s leading commercial real estate developer the Irvine Company.

Click Here to learn about the EvoNexus FinTech Incubator FAQ

EvoNexus is Southern California’s leading incubator with locations in San Diego and Irvine. We empower motivated entrepreneurs to turn their transformative ideas into fundable, commercially viable companies. EvoNexus is supported by corporate investors, including some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Its companies enjoy class A offices and dry lab spaces provided by California’s leading commercial real estate developer, the Irvine Company. 

WHY EVONEXUS?

EvoNexus Board

The EvoNexus Board of Directors represent some of the most important companies and firms in Southern California and beyond. Our directors are comprised of executives and founders from companies who are committed to growing the innovation economy through their financial and strategic support of the ventures  launched through the EvoNexus incubator program.

WHAT DOES IT COST?

EvoNexus requires all startups entering the incubator program to only provide 4-5% common shares to the non-profit organization. EvoNexus startups are not charged any fees during their incubation period that can be up to 2 years.

Click Here to learn about the EvoNexus Incubator FAQ

The Application Portal for the EvoNexus Incubator is Always Open.

If your company does not fit into the categories listed above, please apply anyway, as EvoNexus is always looking for great companies across all domains!

Questions? Email Brittany at BGill@EvoNexus.org