Germany-based VMRay bags €32M to solve ‘the toughest cybersecurity challenges’

Germany-based VMRay, a solution provider for dynamic analysis of advanced threats such as zero-day and targeted attacks, announced on Monday that it has extended its Series B funding to $34M (approximately €32M).

The company mentions in a statement that it will use the funds to further accelerate the expansion of its product portfolio in order to target a broader set of market segments.

VMRay’s co-founder, Dr Carsten Willems, says, “The cyber threat landscape is going through a profound change, and with the increasing volume and complexity of new threats, our customers face new challenges. The latest investment has been a collaboration with a strategic scope, enabling VMRay to make its product suitable for a wider range of market segments and use cases including threat intelligence, security automation and MSSPs.”

Investors in this round

The investment was led by France-based alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital through its subsidiary Tikehau Ace Capital and its European Cybersecurity Growth fund, alongside new investors NRW.BANK and Gründerfonds Ruhr.

Augustin Blanchard, Executive Director at Tikehau Capital, says, “In our role as cybersecurity-focused experts, we were impressed with VMRay’s unique value proposition: building more effective detection tools integrated or interfaced with larger cybersecurity solutions. VMRay’s ability to automate detection is a clear differentiator, positioning it as the tip of the spear in the global effort to elevate cybersecurity standards globally. We firmly believe the company will sustain scalable, explosive growth in the coming years, driven by skilled leadership and powerful market tailwinds.”

Existing investors eCAPITAL and High-Tech Gründerfonds also participated in the round.

Dr Ulrich Schmitt, Principal at High-Tech Gründerfonds, says, “VMRay has managed to uniquely position themselves in the market, complementing existing solutions as the extra layer of security that is needed to combat advanced and unknown threats. Having built a strong foundation for further international growth, the company is set to become the global leader in advanced threat detection.”

“Solving toughest malware and phishing challenges”

Founded in 2013 by Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund, VMRay was established in order to address a significant cybersecurity vulnerability including new, unidentified, and highly sophisticated threats and targeted attacks. The company offers solutions for enterprises, governmental organisations, and MDRs to detect and analyse the most challenging malware and phishing threats.

In order to solve emerging and evolving challenges, the company developed a “unique”, hypervisor-based approach to sandboxing, and then continued to integrate technology, including its own Machine Learning models. In computer security, a sandbox is a security tool used to isolate running programs, often to lessen the impact of system failures and/or the spreading of software vulnerabilities.

VMRay claims that its solutions increase the effectiveness of Security Operations Center teams With precise judgments, noise-free output, and “seamless” integrations with leading EDR, XDR, SOAR, and Threat Intelligence Platform suppliers. 

Currently, the company has collaborations with four of the top five technological firms worldwide, 37 significant financial institutions, and 56 governmental entities globally.