CounterCraft announced it has secured $5 million funding. The investment will accelerate global growth as we focus on acquiring market share in the US with our cyber threat defense platform, following successful expansion across Europe and in the UK.
David Barroso, CEO and Co-Founder, CounterCraft, said:
“We are energised and delighted to announce concluding our latest funding round with a total of $5 million and to welcome eCAPITAL and Red Electrica Group to our list of specialized investor firms.”
This latest round of investment will propel our plans to acquire greater market share in the US, where a number of successful Threat Detection, Threat Intelligence and Threat Response projects are already underway. This follows successful expansion across Europe and the UK and recent recognition by the “New Generation Cyber Deception” award for our ground-breaking contribution to the US cybersecurity market.
An Esteemed List of European Investors
“We are delighted to successfully conclude our investment round with such an esteemed list of investor and VC firms, each holding strong records of success for supporting scale-ups with achieving valuable market share in the US.”
The financing round was led by Adara Ventures, joined by new investors eCAPITAL and Red Eléctrica Group, with participation from existing investors including Evolution Equity Partners, ORZA, and Wayra. CounterCraft continues to successfully leverage the extensive knowledge and experience Adara Ventures brings with its mature cybersecurity portfolio, as well as their advantageous position in both Europe and the US. Wayra (Telefonica’s Open Innovation Hub), Swiss investor firm Evolution Equity Partners, and Basque Country-based ORZA also sustain their involvement as influential investors for CounterCraft, and each represent a key enabler as we seek to fuel transatlantic growth for CounterCraft.
Alberto Gomez, Managing Partner, Adara Ventures
Alberto Gomez, Managing Partner, Adara Ventures- “We continue to be inspired by the combination of engineering ability and vision that CounterCraft has shown in defining a new category of defensive tool that responds to the current threat landscape. Nothing else we have seen effectively uses a Know-Your-Attacker stance to turn the tables on threat actors. We are now excited about CounterCraft’s prospects for expanding its presence with sophisticated, large clients in the U.S. and European markets.”*
“Cyber threat deception solutions promise to provide the highly sought-after efficiency and effectiveness in threat detection programs. By luring intruders into a digital twin of your companies’ IT infrastructure, the quality of intelligence gathered increases tremendously.” Seewald expanded: “With CounterCraft we have a team of cyber security experts building the product they were looking for in their previous organizations’ operational roles. Their customers love the product and the team. We are glad to be joining this group of renowned investors in this financing round.”
Dirk Seewald, Partner, eCAPITALAll Set to Scale
“Our focus will be to expand our sales and marketing effort as we continue to develop and deliver our internationally-proven and advanced cyber deception technology beyond Europe and the UK.”
CounterCraft represents a welcome addition to a large existing cyber security portfolio for eCAPITAL – a relationship set to provide invaluable support with bridging the gap between Europe and the US for the award-winning cyber deception provider. Founded in 1999, the Germany-based venture capital firm provides early to growth stage funding to technology firms spanning cybersecurity as well as software and IT, industry 4.0, new materials and cleantech. A perfect fit for CounterCraft, eCAPITAL has a history of supporting entrepreneurs determined to build companies with lasting significance. We’re thrilled by the opportunity presented by the international networks of business leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists and potential partners that this partnership will provide access to.
Red Eléctrica Group also contributes to this latest funding round, bringing a track record of success for supporting scale-ups expand beyond Europe, as well as valuable new connections to specialized markets in critical infrastructure. Red Eléctrica Group is a multi-national business group of Spanish origin with an established global presence in the energy, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure industry verticals – areas of special interest for CounterCraft and our long term commercial roadmap. The new relationship is also an opportunity for the Group to increase its knowledge of cyber security, as well as to collaborate with us on the development of use cases for industrial networks.
Investor Interest Piques in Emerging Threat-Facing Technology
The concept of cyber deception is one of the more intuitive realms of cybersecurity from the perspective of budget-holders and board members, with its roots steeped in historical defeats against adversaries. Coined as an emerging market in cybersecurity with significant potential for growth, Gartner plotted Distributed Deception Platform technology at the peak of the 2019 Hype Cycle for Threat-Facing Technology, naming CounterCraft as a leading vendor in the field.
A significant number of organizations and investors already make up the cyber deception early adopter population. Investor interest remains strong amongst those looking to deepen and differentiate their cybersecurity portfolio as global IT spend is forecast to reach $3.9 trillion, combined with predictions from the likes of Gartner that by 2022, 25% of all threat detection and response projects will include deception features and functionality (Improve Your Threat Detection Function with Deception Technologies, March 2019, Gartner).
Dan Brett, CSO and Co-Founder, CounterCraft commented:
“We’re doubly pleased to have secured these funds in an age when unprecedented challenges for organizations forced to embrace a more distributed way of working invite huge demand for enhanced cybersecurity. CounterCraft is more confident than ever that the solution offers the kind of rapid, effective and cost-efficient support businesses now need in order to thrive post COVID-19.”
David Barroso, CounterCraft’s CEO, said:
“The CounterCraft solution fits seamlessly into existing security strategies. Fully integrated with the MITRE ATT&CK™ TTP classification project, the platform gathers high-quality intelligence through assets such as WiFi, SWIFT, email accounts & social media. Uniquely, the platform can automatically convert this harvested data into active responses. This puts CISOs back in the driving seat when defending. CounterCraft is necessary for any organization with an active defense stance.”
Join the CounterCraft Family
You can follow our next steps as CounterCraft focuses on significant transatlantic expansion in the post-COVID-19 era throughout the remainder of 2020 and beyond here on the blog, as well as via Twitter and LinkedIn. We are always keen to explore new opportunities with potential investors, partners and customers. If CounterCraft sounds like the natural way to diversify your cybersecurity portfolio or realign your organization’s security posture, email [email protected] and let’s start the conversation.