Veracode raises $40mn to help developers fix application bugs
Thu 11 Sep 2014
Application security startup Veracode announced on Thursday that it has raised $40mn in new funds to expand the adoption of its anti-cyber-attack software.
This latest funding round is expected to be the last in a series of pushes which have raised a total of $112mn for the company since its launch in 2006. The next stage will be a formal pursuit of an IPO of stock, which Bob Brennan, Veracode’s chief executive, believes could come within the next year.
The company’s revenue for 2013 reached over $45mn and the company counts three leading US banks among its customers.
The Boston-based tech firm has enjoyed healthy growth, in a digital environment plagued by cases of security breaches and hacks. The Veracode SaaS looks to remove the obstacles that companies face when introducing new technology, such as security clearance issues.
Brennan told Gigaom that he believes today’s main breaches happen at the hands of bugs in the design or source code of an application. He explained that the developers do not consider the “hostile environment” caused by hackers.
Veracode claims that their customers are no longer under threat from cyber-attacks which hack through software applications, such as the Heartbleed virus. Their specialised software scans the applications for vulnerabilities through a cloud-based system.
“We get deeply embedded in the build process so we are like air,” Brennan said.
After scanning through an application, Veracode is able to detect whether the development team has introduced any SQL injection errors or any other bugs. It then relays this information back to the developers so that they can create an appropriate patch.
The latest funding round was headed up by Wellington Management as well as a number of existing investors, such as 406 Ventures and Atlas Venture.
