Participated · Seed · Apr 2025

Octane provides an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that analyzes smart-contract and blockchain code to pinpoint and automatically fix security flaws before they are exploited. The system combines large-scale code analysis with automated remediation, aiming to safeguard billions of dollars in on-chain assets. Led by CEO Giovanni Vignone, the company is positioning itself as a core security layer for teams building in crypto and Web3. With its newly secured seed capital, Octane plans to accelerate product development, grow its engineering and security research teams, and mass-label vulnerability data to improve model accuracy. The funds will also support broader adoption among developers integrating the platform into their continuous-integration workflows. The $6.75 million seed round represents the entirety of the company’s disclosed financing to date.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

Icebreaker is an open professional network that allows users to instantly prove credentials about themselves, provide verifiable endorsements for others, and search the entirety of their network for free. Users can create curated, high-context profiles by linking identities such as LinkedIn, GitHub, X, or Farcaster and logging in with email, Farcaster, or an Ethereum wallet. The platform supports linking and optionally verifying more than 50 account types and enables quick endorsements between current and former colleagues. Icebreaker piloted early iterations with Web3 companies like Coinbase, OpenSea, and Polygon Labs and demoed at conferences including DevConnect and FarCon. The company also ran a Passport program at Station3 that allowed Station3 founder Bob Loukas to track verified engagement with Station3 programming. Over the summer the six-person team plans to bring new social graphs into the app and promote connectivity through professional skill endorsements and recommendations.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2023

Spec provides a platform that invisibly protects enterprises processing billions in online transactions by scanning the entire customer journey to identify threats and deploy active countermeasures. The company focuses on defending against modern, including AI-powered, attack tools that target online businesses. Led by CEO Nate Kharrl, Spec combines detection with exploit remediation to give customers increased visibility and control over attacks. The firm plans to use new funding to advance its platform capabilities, expand its threat labs R&D unit, and co-develop specialized products with partners. Spec closed a $15M Series A to fund these product and research expansions. The company emphasizes neutralizing attacker tools and tactics through its threat labs and partner collaborations. Spec (formerly SpecTrust) built a no-code platform, the Trust Cloud, to help enterprises fight fraud and abuse on their websites and platforms. The Trust Cloud deploys invisibly in front of any website or API and provides insights, automation, integration, and orchestration in minutes rather than months. Spec recently extended the platform with an Insights feature that automatically highlights trends like account takeover attempts, failed authentication challenges, repeat refund requests, and abandoned checkouts so teams can isolate emergent attack patterns or reduce friction for trusted users. The company says teams beyond fraud and security are using the platform, positioning it as a unified tool for cross-team workflows around trust. Spec was founded in 2020, is based in San Jose, Calif., and is led by CEO and co-founder Nate Kharrl. The company has raised a total of $8.8M to date. SpecTrust offers a no-code risk defense platform that unifies behavior, identity, history and risk data and is deployed between a website or app and its users. The company says the platform cuts 90% of a business’ risk infrastructure spend and enables responses in minutes instead of months, with identity behavior lookups now taking roughly five to seven milliseconds. Non-technical staff can use the system to identify attack behavior, verify identity information, validate payments and mitigate threats before they become losses. Founded by a team that ran risk management divisions at eBay and ThreatMetrix, SpecTrust aims to "fix the economics of fighting fraud" and is targeting financial institutions as well as fintech and crypto companies. The offering is designed to give fraud teams visibility over every user interaction without heavy engineering lift. SpecTrust is emerging from stealth with a public launch and a $4.3 million seed raise.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2021

ZeroEyes announced a $10 million investment in the report cited. The article did not describe the company’s core product, services, or technology. The announcement included no information on how the funds will be used or on future plans. The report provided no historical funding details or financial metrics such as revenue or user counts. No founding year or headquarters location was included in the article. As published, the coverage focused solely on the investment announcement without operational context.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2018

Randori is a security platform startup that helps red teams and other security researchers run offensive engagements. The company provides a platform to support offensive security operations and testing for customers. Randori raised a $20 million Series A to expand its platform. The round was led by Harmony Partners, with participation from existing investors. The company said it will use the funding to double down on engineering to meet growing customer demands. The article does not disclose revenue, user counts, or other operating metrics. Randori is developing a cloud-based attack platform that combines continuous reconnaissance with the execution of real attacks to emulate the behavior of advanced threat actors. The platform is designed to provide CISOs real-time visibility into where and how attackers are likely to strike and to safely validate the impact of specific attacks. Randori is positioning its product as a continuous, more authentic alternative to legacy penetration testing and red-team engagements. The company says it is working with more than 20 customers and design partners, including large organizations such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Randori is offering early access through a Beta Program while expanding engineering and product teams. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in Denver, CO.