Naarden, Netherlands-based early- and late-stage investor TIIN Capital’s Dutch Security TechFund has backed US-based startup BreachLock, a full-stack Pen Testing-as-a-Service (PTaaS) platform powered by certified hackers and AI.
The Dutch investor announced on Monday that it has invested $3M (nearly €2.73M) as Seed funding in BreachLock to accelerate its market expansion.
About the investor
The investment from TIIN Capital underlines its ambition to be involved in global cybersecurity players with a scalable product and with the mission to make society safer.
TIIN Capital was founded in 1998 and in early 2019, it started with its sixth venture capital fund – one of them being Dutch Security TechFund. This fund is sector-focused and backs startups and scale-ups in cybersecurity and IoT Security. The firm works together with Security Delta in The Hague (NL) and the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) in Brussels (BE).
Michael Lucassen, Managing Partner of TIIN Capital, says, “Investing in and getting involved with BreachLock seemed like a natural fit to us. The Security Testing market needs innovation and disruption. Building a strong security foundation and solving the security challenges using an optimal combination of AI, Automation and Human Ingenuity is the need of the hour. We are proud to be involved in working together with a passionate team that has the same ambitions as we have.”
“Simple and Scalable Penetration Testing”
Founded in 2019 by Seemant Sehgal, BreachLock claims to be the world’s first AI-powered full stack and SaaS-enabled Pen Testing-as-a-Service platform. The company believes that automation and unification of workflows across technology stack and ecosystems enables a collaborative way to achieve faster and better security.
BreachLock uses a hybrid approach to deliver Penetration Testing services using Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and human PenTesters (also known as Ethical Hackers). The company, with its AI and automation, doesn’t aim to replace humans from the value chain. However, the AI helps to scale the human PenTesters so that they can focus on discovering more severe security gaps.
The company’s platform assists enterprise clients with continuous Security Posture Management. Currently, it has a presence across New York, Amsterdam and London, and has over 80 employees and 600 paying customers across banking, insurance, computer software, and healthcare sectors.
Capital utilisation
BreachLock says that the raised funds will be used in the company’s product innovation and expansion of its enterprise client base in the US and European markets, among which is The Netherlands.
Seemant Sehgal says, “Our clients are investing millions in expanding their application landscape and amplifying their cloud presence. This poses a huge challenge for continuous security posture management and traditional pen testing that is completely human dependent fails to meet this speed and scalability challenge.”
“BreachLock’s focus on a hybrid approach resonates well with our clients and helps them look beyond consulting firms or crowdsourced solutions. We are honoured to have TIIN Capital supporting us in the seed round of funding, sharing our vision of revolutionising the traditional approach to Pen Testing,” adds Sehgal.
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