Flashpoint, a New York, NY-based threat intelligence and research company that focuses on what it calls “Business Risk Intelligence” (BRI) gleaned from combing the Deep & Dark Web, has raised $28 million in Series C funding.
The company goes beyond what many traditional cyber threat intelligence providers collect, which typically includes technical indicators such as IP addresses, domains, and signatures. Flashpoint collects information and monitors conversations in the underground, including cybercriminal groups and terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (Daesh) and its supporters.
According to the company, the additional funding will help support adoption of its BRI offerings and support the recruitment of additional threat intelligence analysts.
As Flashpoint explains, the company provides customers with “visibility into real threats with the potential to harm them and the context to help them understand how these threats could impact their business.”
“Traditional cyber threat intelligence, which has been largely focused on indicators of compromise, is insufficient in supporting the risk decision-making process, as it too often limits its focus on events in cyberspace,” warned Flashpoint in its Business Risk Intelligence – Decision Report, published in January 2017. “Not all actors constrain their operations solely to the cyber realm; top tier nation-states like the U.S. and Russia use the full-spectrum of their capabilities to achieve their objectives. A threat assessment of Chinese or Russian cyber operations without the context of the national objectives they are supporting fails to provide risk decision-makers with an accurate portrayal of the threat landscape upon which to make business decisions.”
Flashpoint says its customer base includes industries such as finance, retail, insurance, healthcare, law, media, energy, technology, telecommunications, defense, aviation, entertainment, hospitality, consumer goods, and manufacturing. The company counts several Fortune 500 and government organizations as customers.
Led by new investor Georgian Partners, the Series C round also included investors Greycroft Partners, TechOperators, Leaders Fund, Jump Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Cisco Investments also participated in the round. Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO of security firm Herjavec Group and investor on ABC’s hit show, Shark Tank, was an early investor in the company, SecurityWeek has confirmed.
The company previously raised $10 million in Series B funding in July 2016 and announced its expansion from cyber threat intelligence into business risk intelligence.
Josh Lefkowitz, CEO and co-founder of Flashpoint, is a SecurityWeek columnist.