Today we announced a $2.5 million capital raising from two of Australia’s leading venture firms Our Innovation Fund, LP and the Reinventure Group.
Kasada will use the money to extend its US footprint, bolster market relationships and continue upgrades to Polyform, its innovative real-time bot detection and mitigation platform for websites and web applications.
Kasada Polyform detects and mitigates malicious web traffic that other security platforms are unable to identify. The platform protects websites and web applications in real-time from user account takeovers, click fraud, data-scraping attacks and other attacks that significantly disrupt user experience of websites. Kasada Polyform also reduces bot-related network bandwidth and computing infrastructure costs, and improves the effectiveness of digital marketing.
David Shein, one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs and a founder and general partner of Our Innovation Fund, LP that led the investment, will join Kasada’s board of directors. Our Innovation Fund, LP brings a depth of market knowledge and expertise in building and scaling global technology companies as well as a strong network of value-adding minds across technology and business-building fronts.
“Sam Crowther, Kasada’s founder and CEO, is an exceptional talent and we’re thrilled to be partnering with him and the Kasada team,” Mr Shein said. “Kasada is redefining how enterprises protect themselves against the wide range of cyber threats.
“In addition to enhanced security, Kasada also provides customers with an immediate return on investment through reduced infrastructure costs and improved marketing feedback. Traditional web application security products fail to stay ahead of attackers because they struggle to distinguish legitimate users from adversaries. We’re excited to be working with Kasada to make enterprises safer, and take this Australian solution to the world.”
Danny Gilligan, Co-founder and Managing Director at Reinventure Group, will also advise the Kasada board. Reinventure is known for its ability to create high-functioning partnerships, between large corporates and innovative start-ups, and deep expertise in the emerging data economy.
“As the nascent data economy develops, companies are faced with the twin pressures of increasing the use of digital assets, while meeting security and governance obligations. Kasada plays perfectly at the intersection of the trend, materially enhancing perimeter security while protecting data assets from unauthorised access,” Mr Gilligan said.
“Kasada is also tapping into a rapidly growing market. By 2020 spending on enterprise firewalls and cloud security is forecast to reach $17.2 billion annually. Kasada is part of the exciting new wave of cybersecurity, thwarting attackers with economic disincentives rather than technological barriers.”
Mr Crowther said Our Innovation Fund, LP and Reinventure brought a depth of market knowledge and expertise on transformative technologies that would help propel Kasada locally and globally.
“As cyber criminals increasingly use automation to attack websites and web applications, automation is therefore the key to keeping up where human analysts cannot,” he said.
“Kasada provides protection against the dark web’s inventory of stolen user credentials and automated fraud tools. In today’s highly connected world, a secure digital experience is key to building and retaining trust. Smart businesses know cybersecurity, data protection and customer experience are inextricably linked.”
Kasada Polyform secures millions of e-commerce and other internet transactions, records and assets every day. It shifts the balance of power from the adversary to the enterprise by making attacks computationally more expensive for attackers and thereby disrupting their business model.
“Kasada improves business decision making, and the bottom-line costs of computing infrastructure,” Mr Crowther said.
“Our customer data shows bot traffic can consume 90% or more of a company’s bandwidth and computing resources. Not only does this waste money, it distorts marketing and web analytics.”
About Kasada
Kasada has developed a radical approach to defeating automated cyberthreats based on its unmatched understanding of the human minds behind them. The Kasada platform overcomes the shortcomings of traditional bot management to provide immediate and enduring protection for web, mobile, and API channels. Its invisible, dynamic defenses provide a seamless user experience and eliminate the need for ineffective, annoying CAPTCHAs. Our team handles the bots and bot mitigation so clients have freedom to focus on growing their businesses, not defending it. Kasada is based in New York and Sydney, with offices in Melbourne, Boston, San Francisco, and London. For more information, please visit www.kasada.io and follow on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
About Our Innovation Fund, LP
Our Innovation Fund, LP (OIFVC) is an Australian-based venture capital firm focused on partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs building world-class businesses. With $50 million under management OIFVC invests in early stage businesses with innovative, high-growth or disruptive technologies, or business models with demonstrated market demand.
The firm’s founders, Geoff Levy, David Shein and Jerry Stesel, along with its partners, investment committee members and investors comprise some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs and business builders. The team has significant investment, funds management, operational, and strategic experience. OIFVC invests at the seed stage ($250k-$1m) through to Series A ($2m-$5m) where a product/market fit is proven.
About Reinventure
Reinventure is an Australian venture capital fund whose largest investor is the Westpac Banking Corporation, one of Australia’s largest banking and financial services companies. Reinventure’s primary objective is to bring great entrepreneurs together in a partnership opportunity with Westpac. As a result, Reinventure believes it can help ventures to scale more rapidly than they could do on their own.
Reinventure makes investments from seed through to Series A and up. Co-founded and managed independently by Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant, who are also co-investors in the fund, Reinventure is investing a further $50 million in Australian technology ventures through Fund 2, and made 10 investments through Fund 1, also $50 million.
