London-based cybersecurity startup Panaseer has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round, led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from existing investors Notion Capital, Albion Capital, Winton Ventures and Paladin Capital Group, as well as new investor Cisco Investments, brings total disclosed investment to $15.6 million.
Today, for me, marks the day that the security industry recognises the demand to evolve from a reactive to a proactive approach – fireproofing, rather than firefighting
– Nik Whitfield, CEO and founder, Panaseer
“I’m honoured that the work we are doing to create data-driven security programs, both in Panaseer the company and the Panaseer Platform, has been recognised and supported by organisations such as Evolution Equity Partners, Notion Capital and our new investor Cisco,” said CEO and founder Nik Whitfield. “Today, for me, marks the day that the security industry recognises the demand to evolve from a reactive to a proactive approach – fireproofing, rather than firefighting.”
“We believe the attributes of the Panaseer platform are unique and provide the company with a cutting edge advantage in the global marketplace,” said Richard Seewald, Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners. “Cyber hygiene needs to be prioritised and drilled down into every organization, and Panaseer’s approach provides inside-out visibility on an enterprise’s cyber security risk posture while automating data processing, risk analysis and remedial actions. We welcome Panaseer to our portfolio of leading cyber security companies.”
Panaseer, founded in 2014 by Whitfield, formerly of BAE Systems, aims “to bring more insight, visibility and automation to cyber security”.
“Adversaries are more agile than ever, and the asymmetry between attack and defence means they only need to find one hole, meaning we have to cover them all […] While the holes may be found everywhere, actually discovering them can be a more laborious task than imagined,” said Whitfield, giving examples such as shadow IT, old applications, personal or removable devices, unsecured servers and more.
Automation, he believes, is the answer.
The Panaseer Platform uses proprietary algorithms to create a view of a company’s assets (including devices, applications and people), continuously measures their security, and brings the information together to help users from C-suite to engineers with visibility, risk-based decision making, and reporting.
“Managing an effective cyber posture is difficult, especially given the security complexity organizations face with dozens of vendors in place,” said Rob Salvagno, Vice President of Corporate Development and Cisco Investments. “Panaseer clearly understands this and confronts it with innovation that streamlines an organization’s view of their security posture to better automate cyber risk management. Cisco’s investment reflects our mission of delivering effective security that is simple, open and automated to improve our customers’ security posture.”
Whitfield is particularly excited about the investment from Cisco, which he hopes will not only help the company with market penetration in the US, but also provide the platform with data that could enhance its performance.
“They have loads of products that generate data and with a platform like ours, what we are really hungry for is data,” he said.
According to Panaseer, the investment will be used to boost R&D efforts in the UK while expanding sales and marketing across the US.
