Most security breaches dominating headlines are the results of sophisticated efforts to compromise high-profile enterprises — those with troves of valuable data and the ability to pay large ransoms. Despite the lack of press coverage, bad actors aren’t just focused on the Fortune 500. With ever-expanding attack surfaces and advancements in automation, cybercriminals are actively targeting small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) — the backbone of the global economy.
SMBs represent 99.9% of all U.S. businesses and 400 million businesses globally while being the target of 43% of all cyberattacks. Most of these businesses are severely underprotected as they often cannot afford best-in-class security solutions and lack the dedicated security expertise needed to manage and operationalize these tools.
As a result, SMBs are increasingly relying on managed service providers (MSPs) to handle their IT and security requirements. However, MSPs are often small businesses themselves: with even large enterprises struggling to staff their own security teams, many MSPs lack the capacity and personnel needed to continuously monitor alerts and remediate threats for their clients.
That’s why we’re excited to partner with Huntress and lead the company’s $60 million Series C. Huntress provides SMBs and their service providers with a platform of managed security capabilities across endpoint detection and response, next-gen antivirus, security awareness training, Microsoft 365 threat protection and more — all backed by a team of 24/7 human threat hunters.
Bridging the SMB security gap with world-class technology
Huntress is filling the unmet needs of SMBs with its managed security platform, offering a robust suite of capabilities including endpoint protection, detection and response delivered through a proprietary, lightweight agent that constantly monitors for malicious activity.
However, for SMBs, even the best technology is not necessarily enough: these businesses and their service providers need outcomes,not just alerts that they are ill-equipped to manage and investigate. Huntress was built with this in mind from Day 1, maximizing for simplicity, accessibility, and results. The entire platform is backed by the Huntress Threat Operations team, a dedicated group of human threat hunters working 24/7 to investigate and analyze potential threats — all at a cost that is accessible to the average SMB. Huntress also makes remediation simple and straightforward, providing detailed recommendations for next steps and the option to automatically remediate a threat with a single click.
That said, managed endpoint security is only the beginning. In fact, Huntress has already begun expanding its platform which now includes security awareness training (with its latest acquisition of Curricula) and recently launched their Microsoft 365 threat detection offering. Both will be managed on behalf of customers by Huntress and backed by their 24/7 ThreatOps team.
A passionate community of customers
Today, Huntress works with more than 4,000 partners and more than 100,000 end customers to protect over 2 million endpoints globally. Service providers we spoke with enthusiastically described Huntress as “the only tool that was able to stop attacks for several clients” and the reason they can “sleep easy at night” thanks to the 24/7 coverage provided by the platform and ThreatOps team.
The company has also forged a stellar reputation for itself among the service provider community. Huntress supports MSPs in several ways, keeping them informed with the latest research on CVEs and threats (such as the recent 3CX supply chain attack), running training sessions at trade shows and providing resources through initiatives such as the Huntress Neighborhood Watch Program. In addition to providing collections of programs and resources to the community, Huntress also offers its platform for internal use by service providers that want to protect their own devices at no additional cost.
Founded by seasoned cyber warfare veterans
Kyle Hanslovan,
CEO & Co-Founder of Huntress
We are thrilled to be partnering with co-Founders Kyle Hanslovan (CEO), Chris Bisnett (CTO) and John Ferrell (Technical Director of Threat Operations), all veteran cyber operators that have served the U.S. Intelligence Community including the National Security Agency. Together, the three have over 30 years of experience working in offensive cyber operations and developing solutions for security challenges at the national level. Since founding Huntress in 2015, they have built an incredible team that is laser-focused on delivering the security solutions SMBs need most to protect themselves in today’s constantly evolving threat landscape.
At Sapphire, we’ve had a long history of investing in breakout companies across cybersecurity including recent exits such as Auth0 and Sumo Logic and current portfolio companies such as Netskope, JumpCloud, Exabeam, Uptycs, JupiterOne and more. We’ve had a front row seat to world-class teams tackling foundational security issues, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Huntress team on its mission to elevate the security of the 99%.
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