Vali Cyber, Inc., a next-generation provider of Linux cybersecurity solutions, announces the successful completion of its seed funding round, raising USD 15 million. The funding round was co-led by Grotech Ventures and the 412 Venture Fund (412VF) and aided with strong support from Riverfront Ventures, Florida Funders, and additional strategic investors. The substantial investment highlights the critical need to effectively address the specific security requirements of devices using the Linux® operating system.
With capacity to scale to 20,000 endpoints or more, Vali Cyber’s ZeroLock platform has garnered attention from enterprises and investors, pulling in $15M in seed-round funding and causing disruption to the Linux security market. (Photo: Business Wire)
“Our team is excited to announce the closing of our seed round. This represents a significant milestone for Vali Cyber,” stated Anthony Gadient, CEO of Vali Cyber. “The investment validates the ability of our team and our technology to disrupt the Linux security markets. It is the first step in our journey to make ZeroLock® the trusted platform of choice for Linux systems, from the cloud to the edge. With the support of our investors and early adopter partners, we are well-positioned to drive this vision forward.”
Representing 90% of server use for public clouds1 and more than 80% of devices used in the United States’ national security infrastructure2, Linux has become a critical operating system over the last few years. However, due in part to this rapid rise, there has been a lack of effective security solutions for Linux. Recognizing this need, Vali Cyber developed the ZeroLock security platform to specifically address the challenges of Linux-based environments with the goal of disrupting the Linux security market.
“We’ve been buzzing about Vali Cyber’s ZeroLock platform since we first heard about it. It’s introducing truly disruptive technology and redefining what the market should expect from security for Linux. In fact, when you look at the analytical information on cybersecurity leaders, most of the testing has been on Windows platforms,” says Edward Amoroso, CEO and Founder of key analyst group TAG Cyber, LLC. “But that isn’t an accurate reflection of the ocean we’re swimming in. The internet as we know it-from search engines to WordPress servers to public clouds-doesn’t exist without Linux. And with the internet being as centric to our way of living as electricity, we must reconsider how we protect Linux endpoints and understand the profound importance as to why. I think the market is beginning to see that, as you can see by the investor response to Vali Cyber-$15M invested with co-leads as reputable as Grotech and the 412VF is something that will make analysts and enterprise users both sit up and take notice.”
Co-leading the round is Grotech Ventures, located just outside of Washington, DC. With nearly 40 years of experience investing in early-stage companies with high-growth potential, Grotech has worked with several technology companies and sees the promise.
“With a 75% increase in ransomware attacks alone on Linux systems in the first half of 20223, the general mindset around having effective security for Linux is quickly transitioning from ‘nice-to-have’ or ‘good-enough’ to ‘must-have.’ Companies are realizing that the vulnerability is real, and it isn’t even just the cost of an attack, or the amount of time to remediate it-both of which can be game-enders for SMBs. It’s about brand integrity. People are trusting companies with personal information more than ever, and companies need to be able to prove that information is adequately protected on the cloud. Platforms like ZeroLock will allow them to do that,” declares Steve Fredrick, Grotech General Partner.
The Pittsburgh-based 412 Venture Fund, and Grotech’s co-lead, is equally enthusiastic. Andrew Rabin, General Partner and Co-Founder of 412 states, “One of our goals at 412VF is to grow effective entrepreneurship. We see that potential in the team at Vali Cyber. Their leadership has a proven track record with multiple successful start-ups and acquisitions under their belts, and you can see similar levels of dedication, experience, and vision throughout the rest of the team. When you add a platform as groundbreaking as ZeroLock, the pathway to success is unquestionable.”
“We are excited to support such a dynamic father-son team that brings successful entrepreneurial experience with exceptional technical know-how of Linux vulnerabilities in a rapidly growing threat environment for Linux based servers and IOT devices. We believe the comprehensive, low power / high efficacy product suite will quickly become the go-to solution to protect the broad commercial and defense needs in this space and this product’s continuous evolution from their elite advisors will continue to solidify and separate Vali Cyber as the leader in the space. We have strong respect for the Grotech and 412 Venture Fund teams and are very excited to add in the strategic power of our extensive network to help scale Vali Cyber!” said Florida Funders Partner Ryan Whittemore.
As Vali Cyber continues to expand its operations, the company remains committed to advancing Linux cybersecurity and empowering businesses of all sizes with comprehensive and advanced cybersecurity technology. With the backing of its investors, Vali Cyber will continue to stay at the forefront of Linux technological advancements, protecting against sophisticated cyber threats, and ensuring the security and integrity of their clients’ digital assets.
About Vali Cyber:
Vali Cyber, Inc.™ was founded in 2020 with the mission of addressing the specific security needs of Linux. Based on DARPA-funded research from MIT and CMU, we created ZeroLock®, a security platform that provides comprehensive lockdown capability and unparalleled threat detection efficacy while consuming a mere fraction of the resources required by legacy Linux security tools. Our approach is built to put our clients in control-by automating the time-consuming (and error-prone) tasks of securing systems against attack, using state-of-the-art behavioral and AI/ML techniques to detect and stop threats, and automating recovery-including automatic file rollback-from attacks. Imagine detecting and fully rolling back a ransomware attack in milliseconds…that dream has become reality.
Learn more about Vali Cyber and ZeroLock at valicyber.com.
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Vali Cyber®, ZeroLock®, and SecurityPerf™ are trademarks of Vali Cyber, Inc. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
- https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-has-over-3-of-the-desktop-market-its-more-complicated-than-that/
- https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/07/14/1055894/us-military-sofware-linux-kernel-open-source/
- https://invenioit.com/security/linux-ransomware-attacks-rise/#:~:text=There%20was%20a%20shocking%2075,%2C%20iOS%2C%20and%20Android%20systems
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230925960598/en/