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Jerusalem Venture Partners backs Israeli cyber threat tech firm Vicarius

Jerusalem Venture Partners has led a USD5 million funding round in Vicarius for its predictive cyberthreat technology, together with Innovation Hub and Goldbell. Vicarious automatically detects, patches and protects against yet-to-be-discovered software vulnerabilities before they are exploited by hackers.

Jerusalem Venture Partners has led a USD5 million funding round in Vicarius for its predictive cyberthreat technology, together with Innovation Hub and Goldbell. 

Vicarius automatically detects, patches and protects against yet-to-be-discovered software vulnerabilities before they are exploited by hackers.

The company’s US team will be based out of the recently launched JVP International NYC Cyber Center, which aims to protect cities, banks, utilities, and healthcare systems, as well as “democracies, the integrity of information, and the freedom of the individual”, in the firm’s own words.

Founded in 2016 by cyber experts Michael Assraf, Roi Cohen and Yossi Ze’evi, Vicarius is the first cybersecurity platform globally to empower companies with proactive attack mitigation strategies for software vulnerabilities in real-time by using machine learning. And according to Asraf, the firm’s CEO, the new funding will be used to facilitate its future growth strategy.

“We will use the funds to open new Sales offices in Tel Aviv and New York to expand our reach and focus on the US market. The R&D team will grow to extend the product capabilities and to include automation features, broader operating systems support, and much more,” said Assraf. “Vicarius has been involved in multiple geographies through indirect sales and local partnerships. The company wishes to develop its direct sales reach and to build in-house marketing and sales teams, as well as business development operations, to accelerate growth in the US market. 

“Despite the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyberthreats and software weaponisation, little has changed in over a decade in the management and ‘patching’ or upgrading systems against cyberthreats.
 
“Unlike current approaches that reactively map out potential threats based on pre-existing vulnerability data, Vicarius’ algorithm maps predicts vulnerabilities and potential zero-days based on live attack scenarios, offering an elimination pathway suitable for the zero-day malware era,” added Assraf.
 
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, approximately 90 percent of security incidents reported are caused by exploiting existing defects in the code or design of software. Last year more than 17,000 software vulnerabilities were discovered, amounting to a nearly 300% increase from a decade ago, a report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology revealed.   
 
Vicarius’ Vulnerability Assessment technology detects exposures in software before hacks occur, and offers built-in prioritisation tools in a functional ‘risk-snapshot’ dashboard to securely reinforce threat zones.
 
“This technology has the potential to safeguard the integrity of many industries, and it’s of growing strategic importance for the energy sector,” commented Christof Kortz, head of strategic cyber security venturing at innogy Innovation Hub.


“As systems become increasingly software-enabled, complex and IoT connected and as decentralised energy paradigms gain popularity, security defence systems such as Vicarius that can scale across diverse and expanding infrastructures and networks represent the next generation of cybersecurity,” added Kortz.
 
Gadi Porat, head of JVP Cyber Labs, who also joins the board with this round, said: “Vicarius’ platform, based on machine learning and Dynamic Binary Instrumentation, provides a defence from yet-to-be-discovered software vulnerabilities through a multi-step solution: discovering security loopholes, prioritising threats and protecting systems.”
 
Founded in 1993 by tech entrepreneur Erel Margalit, VC firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) has offices in Jerusalem, Beer Sheva and New York. Named ‘Firm of The Year’ in both 2010 and 2011 by Private Equity International, JVP has completed 35 exits to date, including 12 NASDAQ IPOs with a total value of more than USD20 billion.

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