In the arms race between hackers and security companies, understanding exactly how to protect corporate data is key. Now one startup has more money—and a new product—to bring to bear on the problem.
Sqrrl has raised a $7 million Series B round led by new investor Rally Ventures. Previous investors Atlas Venture and Matrix Partners also participated in the round, which brings the Cambridge, MA-based startup’s total funding to $14.2 million since its founding in 2012.
The company is also rolling out a new version of its security software for enterprise customers. In a press release, CEO Mark Terenzoni touted the product launch as focusing Sqrrl’s “capabilities on the challenges posed by the cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities that nearly every organization faces today.”
Sqrrl, which was founded by national-security experts Adam Fuchs, Ely Kahn, and Oren Falkowitz, makes big-data analytics software that helps organizations discover unusual activity by finding and visualizing hidden connections in their data. The goal is to detect and respond to data breaches from cyber attacks in a stronger, more unified way than is possible with existing techniques.
In making a case for the urgency of Sqrrl’s software, Atlas partner Chris Lynch referenced recent data breaches at Anthem, Sony, and JP Morgan, in a statement. He said Sqrrl “provides a next-gen system for improving the efficiency of analysis and incident response to strengthen a company’s overall security posture.”
The tech side of Atlas Venture, which has split off from the life sciences team, has been referring to itself as FKA (“formerly known as” Atlas) because it is in the process of changing its name. The tech fund has also invested in other Boston-area security companies including Bit9, Veracode, and Threat Stack.
