Salesforce Ventures returned for a round that increased the crowdsourced cybersecurity platform's overall funding to $50m and also featured Stanford University.
Bugcrowd, the US-based developer of a crowdsourced cybersecurity service, has completed a $26m series C round that included Stanford University.
Enterprise software producer Salesforce’s corporate venturing unit, Salesforce Ventures, also took part in the round, led by asset manager Triangle Peak Partners.
The round also featured Blackbird Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Industry Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Rally Ventures and Australian superannuation funds Hostplus and First State Super.
BugCrowd runs a service that provides bug bounties to hackers who operate within an organised testing scheme the company customises for each client. It was founded in Australia by Casey Ellis, who serves as chief technology officer.
Ashish Gupta, Bugcrowd’s CEO, said: “The dearth of cybersecurity defenders within organizations and the shortcomings of status quo security approaches is increasingly being addressed by crowdsourced security testing as it cost effectively brings the creativity of the crowd to outsmart adversaries.
“Bugcrowd has pioneered this space since Casey Ellis founded it in 2012, and we intend to use the new funding to accelerate our go-to-market scale and platform advantage.”
Dain DeGroff, Triangle Peak Partners’ co-founding partner and president, will join BugCrowd’s board of directors in conjunction with the round, which valued the company at $115m post-money, according to Pitchbook data.
BugCrowd has now raised $50m altogether. Blackbird Ventures led its $15m series B round in 2016, investing together with Salesforce Ventures, Rally Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, Paladin Capital and Industry Ventures.
The company’s earlier investors also include Icon Venture Partners and Square Peg Capital, both of which participated in its $1.6m seed round in 2013.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
