What would your enemy do? Israeli cybersecurity firm SafeBreach raises $4m

According to lead investor Sequoia, this startup managed to differentiate itself in the crowded field of cybersecurity with a novel approach

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” wrote ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu in his classic “The Art of War.”

That is the goal of Israeli cybersecurity firm SafeBreach, which today announced it had raised $4 million from Sequoia Capital and angel investor Shlomo Kramer, best known as a founder of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Following the investment, Gili Raanan a partner at Sequoia, will join the company’s board of directors. This is the company’s first funding round. It will use the funds to build an R&D center in Israel as well as expand its activities in North America.

Practice makes perfect

SafeBreach was founded in September 2014 and claims to prevent security breaches before they even happen. SafeBreach’s platform simulates war games inside an organization’s information systems, analyzing what a hypothetical attacker would do and how the system would respond. This allows the organization to repair breaches before an attacker actually exploits those breaches.

Gili Raanan, the Sequoia partner who joined SafeBreach’s board of directors, said in a statement that “the transition from a security perspective that lets the attacker take the first step to an active security stance that tests the effectiveness of every aspect of defense, gives the organization defending itself an ongoing advantage.”

SafeBreach was founded by Guy Bejerano and Itzik Kotler, who began their cybersecurity careers in the Israel Air Force and the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit. Bejerano said he started the company because he wanted to turn the tables on attackers by taking away the element of surprise.

“As a data security manager I felt trapped by rules I didn’t write,” he said in a statement. “Research by Verizon shows that over 90 percent of attacks could have been prevented through means that already exist within an organization.”

Two guys and a presentation

Explaining Sequoia’s decision to invest in SafeBreach, Raanan said in a statement: “the world of cybersecurity has been flooded with solutions over the past two years. Many companies have trouble differentiating themselves to potential customers. We met Guy and Itzik when all the company consisted of was two excellent  entrepreneurs and a presentation, but we immediately realized that this was a creative, sophisticated solution with a large market. We talked to about ten potential customers–American information security managers–when they expressed excitement, we decided to invest.”

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