Navigating the Cybersecurity Landscape, Fundings: Escape, Amogy, Ferretly
Navigating the Cybersecurity Landscape, Fundings: Escape, Amogy, Ferretly
7 June 2023 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
In the latest Securing Our Future podcast, host Jeremy Hitchcock talks with Ross Haleliuk about the cybersecurity industry and provides strategies for cybersecurity professionals to improve and grow.
Ross Haleliuk is the head of product at LimaCharlie—a California-based cybersecurity company that enables organizations to detect & respond to threats, automate processes, reduce the number of vendors, and future-proof their security operations.
Ross began his journey as a co-founder of a B2B education tech before building a decade-long career as a product leader across multiple industries and ending up in cybersecurity. His areas of expertise include go-to-market and product strategy, B2B product-led growth, strategic positioning, product-market fit expansion, and growth.
Ross is active in the cybersecurity ecosystem as a startup advisor and angel investor, currently leading the VIS Angel Syndicate. He often writes about cybersecurity, security investment, growth, and building security startups on TechCrunch, in other leading industry media, and in his blog Venture in Security, read by tens of thousands of security leaders every month. Ross is a frequent speaker at podcasts focused on cybersecurity, including SC's Enterprise Security Weekly, Breaking Through in Cybersecurity by Cybersecurity Marketing Society, and others.
In this episode, Ross shares a little bit about the industry as a whole and gives us an outlook to hold for the future. Ross has an optimistic but realistic view and leaves us with a lot to think about going forward in the cybersecurity space.
Listen wherever you stream your podcasts or below on Spotify:
Founded: 2020
Key People: Co-founded by Tristan Kalos and Antoine Carossio
Elevator Pitch: A testing tool designed to automate graph query language application programming interface security during the development process.
Funding: The company raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in a deal led by Frst Capital and Iris Capital on June 6, 2023. Irregular Expressions and 11 other investors also participated in the round.
Founded: 2020
Key People: Co-founded by Hyunho Kim, Young Jo Ph.D, Seonghoon Woo Ph.D, and Jongwon Choi
Elevator Pitch: Emission-free, high-energy-density power fuel technology intended to focus on the decarbonization of transportation.
Funding: The company raised $139 million of Series B venture funding in a deal led by SK Innovation on March 22, 2023, putting the company's pre-money valuation at $450 million. Aramco Ventures, Korea Zinc, MOL PLUS, Yanmar, Zeon Ventures, Mitsui & Company, AP Ventures, DCVC, and Temasek Holdings also participated in the round.
Founded: 2019
Key People: Founded by Darrin Lipscomb
Elevator Pitch: A social media background screening platform designed to help organizations better manage risk.
Funding: The company raised $1.5 million of seed funding in a deal led by Bull City Venture Partners on June 5, 2023. Dave Dickerson and other undisclosed investors also participated in this round.
Sequoia Is Splitting Into Three VC Firms
Venture capital firm Sequoia is splitting into three distinct firms: Sequoia Capital for the U.S. and Europe, HongShan for China, and Peak XV Partners for India and Southeast Asia.
The decision to split up was driven by conflict between the funds' startup portfolios, brand confusion, and the increasing complexity of maintaining centralized regulatory compliance.
The regional funds had already diverged in strategies and operations, with localized investor relations and separate software.
The new firms will establish their own infrastructure, and partners will no longer invest in each other's funds, ceasing profit sharing between the regional funds by December 31.
DOJ Charges Former Apple Engineer Theft of Autonomous Car Tech for China
Former Apple software engineer Weibao Wang has been charged with stealing Apple's autonomous technology for a Chinese self-driving car company.
Wang had "broad access" to databases that could only be accessed by a limited number of Apple employees and is accused of stealing Apple's entire autonomy source code, tracking systems, behavior planning for autonomous systems, and descriptions of the hardware behind the systems.
Wang accepted a job at a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company developing autonomous driving technology and allegedly began siphoning sensitive commercial technology and source code before leaving Apple.
Law enforcement found large quantities of stolen data at Wang's home in California, but he managed to flee to China despite promising not to do so.
If extradited and convicted, Wang could face 10 years in prison for each count.
This case follows similar thefts by other former Apple employees, including Xiaolang Zhang and Jizhong Chen, who also planned to flee to China.
Experts Push for More High-Skilled Immigrants to Compete With China
More than five dozen experts, including former national security officials, are urging the House China Select Committee to address immigration bottlenecks for international science and engineering graduate students and workers.
The talent gap between the United States and China is growing as China invests heavily in training advanced science and technology talent, which could have implications for national security and economic growth.
The fields of artificial intelligence, the semiconductor industry, and the defense workforce in the U.S. heavily rely on international STEM talent, and efforts should be made to attract and retain such talent while ensuring research security
Look for a new episode of Securing the Future Podcasts wherever you listen. In our latest episode, we have guest Ross Haleliuk sit down with General Partner Jeremy Hitchcock for an engaging conversation where Ross discusses the cybersecurity space and outlines ways to optimize the industry for a more secure future.