Sydney, Australia – June 23, 2020 – Kasada, a leading web traffic solution and services provider, today announced the appointment of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to its board of directors. Malcolm Turnbull’s investment company, Turnbull & Partners, also joined in the latest Series B round of funding as Kasada bolsters its sales, marketing and product development capabilities ahead of rapid expansion in the United States.
Kasada, headquartered in Sydney and New York, safeguards the web from cyberattacks by identifying automated bots and preventing them from accessing websites and servers and disrupting user experiences all while protecting its customer’s brand reputation. Kasada’s uniquely architected and cost-effective solution offers strategic protection on a massive scale against attacks on websites, mobile apps, and APIs, including account takeovers, data-scraping and other unwanted automated activities.
“The reality is our global economy is digital – it is central to everything we do and hope to achieve. While this shift towards digital presents enormous opportunities and strengths, it also creates vulnerabilities; nobody is immune. We are seeing unprecedented scale and rate of compromise as tactics used by malicious actors become more sophisticated. It is not only a security problem but one of economic well-being. After meeting with Kasada’s founder and the team, it was clear that Kasada understand this problem but they have designed a pioneering solution that protects the most critical assets of a business. The Kasada story is an inspiring one of Australian innovation and I am excited to join Sam and his team as they continue to keep the Internet safe,” said Turnbull.
“Today’s businesses deal with daily botnet attacks, and yet the systems that they typically use to protect themselves are not only costly to maintain but largely ineffective, exposing them and their customers to huge vulnerabilities. Malcom is a visionary within the cyber security market and we look forward to engaging with him to help guide our organizations forward,” said Kasada founder Sam Crowther.
Founded in 2015, Kasada recently announced a USD$10 million raise in Series B funding, led by U.S. cybersecurity venture capital specialist Ten Eleven Ventures (via its Joint Investment Alliance with KKR) and joined by existing investors Main Sequence Ventures and Westpac’s venture capital arm, Reinventure. This latest round follows Kasada’s USD$4.8 million Series A last year, which also included funding from In-Q-Tel.
“We are delighted to welcome Malcolm Turnbull to Kasada’s board. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Malcolm set the course for Australia’s high rankings in cyber security. We are pleased to have the benefit of his visionary expertise and guidance as Kasada enters a new phase of growth here in the U.S. and globally,” said Kasada CEO Pascal Podvin.
As Australia’s 29th Prime Minister, Turnbull launched Australia’s first national cybersecurity strategy, investing more than AUD$230 million across 33 new initiatives including funding for over a hundred specialist jobs and a new facility for the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
Cybercrime currently costs Australian businesses and individuals $29 billion, with Australian enterprises spending $3.9 billion on defending themselves, and their customer data, from attacks. Kasada research also found that the most prevalent and damaging attacks are those that exploit stolen user credentials to access accounts, and that 90 percent of Australia’s top 250 websites failed to prevent an automation tool from submitting credentials.
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 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.
