AttackIQ to Use $44M to Empower MSSPs, Other Partners, as It Expands

Private investors are hot on the cybersecurity sector. This week, AttackIQ stands out as the latest such vendor to land millions of dollars in funding — $44 million, in fact.

The activity should come as little surprise. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and organizations’ overall greater reliance on the internet and digital technologies, hackers continue to exploit any possible breach opportunity.

Mahdi Aladel, CEO at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, a new AttackIQ investor, agreed.

Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures’ Mahdi Aladel

“Cybersecurity has become a strategic discipline for large organizations as the pressure on security professionals increased dramatically in the wake of COVID-19, and even more in the recent supply chain and ransomware breaches,” Aladel said. “The ability to proactively identify and resolve security gaps using breach and attack simulation was recently featured in Gartner’s list of the top 2021 security and risk management trends. We are delighted to partner with AttackIQ to scale these solutions in the market.”

Funding Trend

Indeed, AttackIQ’s financial infusion news comes just a couple weeks after that of Lightspin’s. That’s not to mention a whole slew of rounds conducted in the second quarter.

For AttackIQ, founded in 2013, the money “signals the next evolutionary phase” for the company, Carl Wright, chief commercial officer, told Channel Futures. The Silicon Valley-based firm, which specializes in breach and attack simulation systems, will use the $44 million to expand how it goes to market. In specific, this means “significant” expansion in EMEA, Asia and North America — all with managed security service providers, VARs and other partners in mind.

AttackIQ’s Carl Wright

“We have consistently executed a channel-first strategy, recognizing that our partners need to give customers solutions, not just another piece of technology,” Wright said.

Furthermore, focusing on more global markets will keep giving the channel “excellent opportunities to create enduring value for customers,” Wright said.

“This investment reaffirms the strength of AttackIQ’s platform, partnerships and practice enablement for both customers and partners, and will allow us to continue empowering the channel with a powerful weapon against cyberattackers,” he added.

‘A Category Leader’

AttackIQ already has started its international expansion, thanks largely to a recent partnership with Westcon. But the $44 million will come in handy. Atlantic Bridge, which led the Series C funding round, appears especially intent on those growth efforts.

Atlantic Bridge’s Kevin Dillon

“AttackIQ has established itself as a category leader with a formidable enterprise customer base that includes four of the Fortune 20,” said Kevin Dillon, co-founder and managing partner at Atlantic Bridge, who also has joined the AttackIQ board of directors. “We believe deeply in the company’s vision and potential to become the next billion-dollar cybersecurity software company, and look forward to helping the company turn early traction in Europe and the Middle East into robust, long-term expansion.”

Several other investors joined Atlantic Bridge in providing AttackIQ’s funding. Two new ones, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Gaingels, joined existing investors Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Telstra Ventures. Moreover, according to Bloomberg, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures represents the world’s largest oil exporter, delivering most of the income for the Persian Gulf kingdom.

“This investment reaffirms the strength of AttackIQ’s security optimization platform, which leverages the MITRE ATT&CK framework to help organizations validate the effectiveness of their security controls safely, continuously, at scale, and across the kill chain,” said Brett Galloway, AttackIQ CEO. “The key question every CISO must answer is, ‘Are we ready for the next attack?’ AttackIQ lets CISOs assure the effectiveness and efficiency of their security programs.”

All told, AttackIQ now boasts around $79 million in funding.