[Updated 12/8/17, 4:27 pm. See below.] Boston-area cybersecurity startup Lexumo has shut down, a source close to the company confirmed to Xconomy.
After publication, CEO Dan McCall confirmed the news in an e-mail to Xconomy that said Lexumo ceased operations in September. [This paragraph added.—Eds.]
Lexumo spun out of Draper Laboratory—the not-for-profit R&D center next to MIT—two years ago, pitching software it said could help find and fix vulnerabilities in open-source software written for connected devices and embedded systems. The company’s “Internet of Things” security play attracted at least $4.9 million in venture funding from Accomplice, .406 Ventures, and Draper.
In January, McCall told Xconomy the company employed 15 people and had plans to double its staff. McCall (pictured above) was brought on that month to help boost Lexumo’s commercialization efforts. He took the reins from co-founder Brad Gaynor, who shifted into the role of chief technology officer, according to Gaynor’s LinkedIn profile. Lexumo also hired a chief revenue officer and vice president of operations in January.
But the company apparently decided to shutter its operations less than a year later. Its website no longer works, and Gaynor took a job in September at Systems & Technology Research in Woburn, MA, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Lexumo isn’t the only company that saw a business opportunity in securing connected devices, and it probably won’t be the last. Others working in this sector include Pwnie Express, another Boston-area startup that recently raised $8 million in venture funding and appointed a new CEO.
