Participated · Seed · Feb 2018

VirZOOM builds stationary bike hardware and software that translate pedaling into movement inside virtual-reality games and experiences. Its VX Bike Controller and bikes pair with consumer VR headsets — from phone-based rigs to PC and PlayStation setups — to deliver gamified workouts like horseback riding and Old West lassoing. The company has been selling bikes for the last couple of years and plans to ship the VX Bike Controller starting in March for $399. VirZOOM positions its product as an alternative to video-driven fitness services by immersing users in different virtual worlds. The startup acknowledges current headset bulkiness and comfort issues and notes accessories like facepad covers can mitigate sweat concerns. Financially, VirZOOM has raised around $6 million to date, including a newly closed $5.5 million seed round. VirZOOM develops active virtual reality applications that use a patent-pending motion control system to deliver immersive, activity-driven experiences while mitigating motion issues. The company’s core product is an active VR platform that pairs user physical activity with fantastical virtual experiences. The founding team includes veterans from Harmonix and creators behind Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Wii Remote Controller. VirZOOM completed development over the preceding year and is moving into a commercialization phase. The company raised initial funding to finance that commercialization and expects to launch into the broader VR applications wave projected for 2016. VirZOOM is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Led · Equity · Nov 2017

Pwnie Express provides an IoT security platform that continuously identifies and assesses all devices and IoT systems to prevent IoT-based threats from disrupting business operations. The platform operates without the need for agents or changes to network infrastructure. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate development efforts and roll out new versions of its IoT security products. It plans to launch its Stampede and channel programs for managed security service providers (MSSPs), value-added resellers (VARs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Pwnie Express raised $8m in the round, bringing total invested to date to $28m. Leadership changes accompanied the funding: Todd DeSisto was appointed CEO and former CEO Paul Paget moved to executive vice president focused on strategy. Pwnie Express is a Boston-based provider of device threat detection solutions offering a SaaS platform to detect, identify, assess and respond to device threats. Its platform gives security professionals visibility and control over wireless, wired and Bluetooth devices in and around their networks. Led by CEO Paul Paget, the company serves over 100 customers across industries including financial services, healthcare, government, energy, manufacturing and retail. Pwnie Express raised $12.9M in a Series B and intends to use the funds to build out its sales, marketing and engineering teams. The financing is positioned to support go-to-market expansion and product development efforts. Pwnie Express develops penetration-testing products for the distributed enterprise. Its initial product was the patent-pending Pwn Plug; in 2013 it introduced the Pwn Pad and released Citadel PX, a scalable enterprise-class offering for security assessments across multiple branch offices. Founded in 2009 by Dave Porcello and based in Berlin, Vermont, the company targets distributed enterprise security testing. It recently closed a $5.1M Series A financing to support growth. Pwnie Express intends to use the funds to broaden its technology and product base and to expand sales and marketing capabilities. The company will also soon open a Boston office.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2016

GoSecure provides an integrated Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform that combines endpoint, network, and email threat detection with behavioral analysis, memory forensics, machine learning, and reputational techniques. The platform delivers predictive multi-vector detection, prevention, and response, and the company reports detecting and mitigating threats on average in less than 15 minutes. Since launching as CounterTack in 2012, GoSecure has acquired several companies and grown to about 200 employees with country headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, and San Diego, California. Management says the company continues to add new customers at the highest rate in its history and that growth accelerated prior to the COVID-19 pandemic has continued as organizations adopt a more mobile workforce. Future plans emphasized by management and investors focus on increasing awareness and adoption of GoSecure's MDR approach and going to market at full speed. Financially, the company recently closed an oversubscribed $35M Series E growth round. CounterTack is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based provider of behavior- and memory-based Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) technology. Led by CEO Neal Creighton, the company offers an Endpoint Threat Platform (ETP) that supplies threat context, organizational resiliency, and broad visibility to mitigate endpoint risk and reduce the impact of advanced attacks in real time. CounterTack delivers its endpoint security solutions to over 250 customers globally. The company received an investment from NTT Docomo Ventures and intends to use the funds to continue to grow globally. The article does not disclose the amount or specific instrument of the investment. CounterTack offers a behavior- and memory-based Endpoint Threat Platform (ETP) that combines behavioral analysis, machine learning, and reputational techniques to detect and remediate advanced threats. The company is building its ETP on the SAP HANA in-memory analytics platform and incorporates Smart Data Streaming, machine learning, predictive analysis, natural language processing, and graph features. CounterTack says this architecture enables rapid ingestion of huge volumes of data and full-fidelity data persistence to provide situational awareness for security analysts. It announced a strategic partnership with SAP NS2 to deliver full-spectrum, highly scalable endpoint security to enterprise and government customers and to bolster ETP deployments at enterprise scale. CounterTack is investing in future capabilities to add detection algorithms, improve performance, and increase deployment flexibility on premise or in the cloud. Financially, the company recently announced a $20 million Series D growth financing and reports delivering its technology to over 250 customers globally. CounterTack sells behaviorally-based EDR technology—notably its Sentinel continuous monitoring and threat response platform and the Digital DNA (DDNA) in-memory binary analysis engine. The company emphasizes predictive, behavior-based detection combined with binary analysis to detect zero-days, rootkits, targeted malware and advanced persistent threats. CounterTack reported nearly 150% year-over-year growth in the APAC market and said over 225 customers use its solutions globally. The DDNA product licensing program has accelerated growth and has been integrated with more than five major cyber organizations. CounterTack has bolstered its Federal presence with the appointment of Matthew Addington and plans to accelerate hiring while unveiling multiple strategic initiatives and a major partner to scale its U.S. Federal business over the next six months. CounterTack builds the Sentinel platform, a real-time Big Data endpoint detection and response solution that provides visibility, forensic analysis, threat visualization and automated response across enterprise endpoints. The platform uses tamper-resistant collection for behavioral capture on laptops, servers, workstations and mobile devices to detect advanced, persistent threats at scale. CounterTack sells to enterprise and SMB customers and distributes via strategic MSSP partnerships. The company has reported strong growth, citing 300% year-over-year Q1 growth from 2014 to 2015. The new funding is intended to support an accelerated go-to-market strategy and further global expansion, including plans for Asian growth mentioned by investor EDBI. CounterTack positions its Big Data architecture as a scalable alternative to SQL-based detection approaches for enterprise security teams.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2015

Digital Guardian offers a cloud-delivered Data Protection Platform and DG Cloud analytics backend that detect and block threats to sensitive information across corporate networks, endpoints, and cloud applications. The platform is available on premises, as SaaS, or as a managed service and claims unique data awareness combined with threat detection and response. Digital Guardian currently secures more than 4.5 million endpoints across 50 countries and serves high-growth verticals including financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and professional services. The company says it has enabled data-rich organizations for more than 15 years. Management has added senior leaders in strategy, engineering, and product to support growth and product development. The recent financing is intended to accelerate product development and innovation to meet rising demand driven by regulations such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. Digital Guardian develops a desktop agent that monitors data and system events, inspects content, clarifies data, and forms policies controlling where data can go. Its products have largely focused on endpoint data protection, and the company is working to integrate network-level DLP capabilities following a recent acquisition. Digital Guardian acquired Code Green Networks for roughly $18 million and has been integrating that network-level DLP with its existing offerings. The company serves about 450 distinct clients and employs 265 people with offices in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. With the new capital, Digital Guardian plans to expand the scope of its products and tightly integrate its technologies to better address cyber threats. CEO Ken Levine has said the company is beginning to evaluate what would make it a successful IPO candidate in 2016. Verdasys provides Digital Guardian, an integrated data protection platform that combines insider threat and cyber threat defense to enable visibility and real-time control over user and malware activities on endpoints. Digital Guardian is also available as a cloud-managed service. Customers include U.S. patent holders, government agencies, and Global 2000 and mid-sized companies. On March 19, 2014, the company raised $12m in funding. The company intends to use the funds to expand into new markets, add additional data protection use cases, and build industry partnerships and channels. Kenneth Levine, formerly SVP and GM of Security Management at McAfee/Intel Security, joined Verdasys as CEO, replacing Jim Ricotta. Verdasys develops the Digital Guardian Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) platform to monitor, classify, audit and control sensitive data across endpoints, servers, virtual environments, mobile devices and the cloud. The company emphasizes protecting intellectual property and regulated data from privileged insiders, third parties, and targeted cyber attacks. In 2011 Verdasys expanded platform support (including Linux distributions, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2), added integrations with TITUS and Attivio, and delivered the first phase of an EIP Mobile strategy. Verdasys also plans managed-service offerings to simplify adoption and management of data protection programs and intends to extend protection to tablets and smartphones. The business was profitable in 2011 and achieved double-digit revenue growth, with software license revenue up 60% over 2010 and a record 1.13 million new licenses delivered that year. Customers exceed 250 Global 2000 and government deployments across automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, chemical, defense and other industries.

Participated · Series C · Dec 2015

SocialFlow is a social media distribution platform that enables publishers to distribute engaging content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Apple News. The company also provides publishers with monetization solutions that leverage their most effective content to improve advertising offerings and retain paying subscribers. SocialFlow's client roster includes half of the top 150 media companies, including CNN, Condé Nast, Meredith, The Associated Press and the BBC. Founded in 2009 and based in New York City, the company closed a $3.5M funding round. Backers were not disclosed. The company intends to use the capital to retire debt and fund continued product development and marketing. SocialFlow builds a platform that optimizes when and how media organizations share content on social networks to maximize clicks and engagement. It automates tweets, schedules Facebook posts via an algorithm to post at optimal times, and integrates with LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. The company says its platform can deliver "twice the results" in clicks and engagement and works with publishers including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, TechCrunch, Time Inc., Condé Nast, The New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, Mashable and Yahoo. With the new capital SocialFlow plans to improve its core product and offer media publications audience insights with demographic data tied to each tweet. The company will also provide recommendations to help brands optimize social advertising, including Promoted Tweets and Promoted Pins. SocialFlow is based in New York, was founded in 2009, and recently closed a $7.5 million Series C. SocialFlow builds optimization technology for social media that determines when brands should post and which messages they should promote. Its two core products, Cadence and Crescendo, help businesses schedule posts automatically and advise which messages to pay to promote on platforms such as Facebook. The company says it serves more than 70 enterprise customers, including Walmart, Pepsi and Burberry, and that six of the ten largest media companies use Cadence. SocialFlow reported revenue in the “low seven figures,” grew 332% year‑over‑year in Q1 2013, and booked as much in Q1 2013 as it did in all of 2012. The company plans to use new funding to expand its product lineup and grow reach through partnerships, and intends to add 12 hires to a team of 32. Competitive context includes recent acquisitions of competitors (Buddy Media by Salesforce and Vitrue by Oracle), which the company cited while declining to disclose valuation. SocialFlow is a social media platform that helps brands use Twitter more effectively by analyzing data and posting on their behalf. Brands supply tweets and SocialFlow determines the best time to send them to maximize exposure with the right users. The company has a formal long-term agreement with Twitter that gives it access to the full firehose (about 155 million tweets per day), after previously having only month-to-month access. Revenues have been pouring in for about a year, and the team says the new funding will support research on the data they are receiving and creating. SocialFlow is NYC-based, has 17 employees, and came out of Betaworks. Co-founder Frank Speiser is quoted discussing the company's focus on turning Twitter data into a paid product for brands.