Cybersecurity Funding

Cyber Intelligence Firm iCOUNTER Emerges From Stealth With $30 Million in Funding

iCOUNTER, which helps organizations defend against targeted attacks, has launched under the helm of former Mandiant president and COO John Watters.

Eduard Kovacs

Published

July 16, 2025

iCOUNTER, which helps organizations defend against targeted attacks, has launched under the helm of former Mandiant president and COO John Watters.

Cyber risk intelligence provider iCOUNTER on Wednesday emerged from stealth mode with $30 million in funding raised in a Series A round led by SYN Ventures.

iCOUNTER, which spun out of cybersecurity solutions provider Apollo Information Systems, has developed an AI-driven intelligence platform designed to enable organizations to detect and block targeted attacks.

The Dallas-based company has been operating in stealth mode for several years, claiming to have provided precision risk intelligence to customers in the United States.

The security firm says its platform can act as an early warning system that identifies threats specific to the customer and its ecosystem, while also providing intelligence that enables rapid containment and recovery after an attack has taken place.

iCOUNTER is led by John Watters, who served as president and COO of Mandiant prior to its acquisition by Google. Watters will serve as CEO and managing partner at iCOUNTER.

Watters is also known for founding iSIGHT Partners, a company acquired by FireEye and merged with Mandiant. Prior to iSIGHT Partners, he acquired and led iDEFENSE.

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After Google acquired Mandiant in 2022, Watters has served as venture partner at SYN Ventures and has been on the boards of several cybersecurity firms, including Apollo.

“We will rapidly emerge as the ‘go to’ cyber risk intelligence provider to help our customers protect against a surging number of targeted attacks. Adversarial innovation is at an all-time high and we plan to match their speed,” said Watters.

“Our own use of AI is what fuels our capability to act with speed and precision to enable our customers to enhance their counter threat capabilities to divert, deflect and defend against a new breed of adversaries. It will take a long time for traditional cyber intelligence companies to shift operating models, providing iCOUNTER with a substantial competitive moat,” he added.