Security Startup Grabs $22M To Safeguard Corporate Email

The Business Email Compromise is now a top concern for the enterprise and security providers alike, especially since regulators have released warnings against the crime. One startup wants to safeguard corporate email and has just received new venture capital to move forward with its efforts.

Agari announced on Tuesday (May 24) that it completed a $22 million funding round to strengthen its Agari Email Trust Platform, a solution to protect corporate email accounts.

The firm is supported by Alloy Ventures, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital, Greylock Partners, Norwest VenturePartners and Scale Venture Partners, according to reports.

“Over the past several years, the cybersecurity market has grown exponentially, with new companies and products being launched every few months,” said Founder and CEO Patrick Peterson in a statement. “Yet, with all this industry focus, email attacks are continuing unabated, with growing impact.”

Reports said the company, founded in 2009, has already worked with major clients, like PayPal, Yahoo and Google, to collaborate on authentication and security solutions. PayPal, Facebook and LinkedIn are all using Agari email security solutions.

Email is one of the most basic yet effective ways that cyberthieves target corporations.

Late last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its latest warning against the Business Email Compromise, which sees fraudsters accessing sensitive data to mimic an executive or trusted professional within the enterprise.

An email is then sent, posing as a legitimate request for someone within the company to initiate a payment. Often the Business Email Compromise comes in the form of a request for a supplier payment, sending a fake B2B invoice, or as a seemingly legitimate email from an executive giving orders to pay a business partner.

Email hacks have also become a problem this year already. Earlier this month, revelations surfaced that 272.3 million email accounts had been stolen in Russia, marking one of the largest data breaches in history. The emails included accounts for the Mail.ru email service, as well as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.