Today (Tuesday), Israeli cyber startup Vdoo, a developer of IoT security systems, announced a $25 million extension to its Series B round, bringing the total to $57 million. Joining existing investors, Qumra Capital and Verizon Ventures led the Series B extension.

"The number of connected IoT devices is rapidly growing, creating greater opportunities for security breaches," said Boaz Dinte, Managing Partner of Qumra Capital that led the round. "Vdoo's unique device-centric, deep technology automated approach has already brought immediate value to vendors in a very short period of time. We believe the market opportunity is huge, and with newly infused growth capital, Vdoo is well-positioned to become the leading global player for securing connected devices."

Almost doubled the round

Vdoo delivers the industry’s leading automated product security platform for device manufacturers. The company's platform performs a complete security assessment in minutes, providing a comprehensive report identifying zero-day vulnerabilities, CVEs, configuration and hardening issues, standard incompliances, and other security exposures with suggested prioritization and remediation mechanisms.

Vdoo developed a platform that automates IoT device security for manufacturers. As part of its solution, the system analyzes the gaps in security throughout the lifecycle of an IoT device, in comparison to the specific required security demands for each device. Next, the system provides actionable insight, with a detailed blueprint how to fix the detected vulnerabilities. From start to finish the whole operation takes a little less than an hour.

Vdoo’s platform first analyzes each IoT device’s Firmware files, then extracts relevant features, and adapts a dedicated security protocol for each device. Finally, the system sweeps through the devices to ensure that the pinned security protocol is actually being implemented.

Vdoo doesn’t just tell you what’s wrong, once the system has identified zero-day vulnerabilities, CVEs, configuration and hardening issues, standard incompliances, and other security exposures, it then suggests prioritization and remediation mechanisms. Essentially, the company automates a device-dedicated-agent with a unique toolkit to prevent mission critical vulnerabilities.

Netanel Davidi, Vdoo CEO, explained while chatting with Geektime that since the previous 2019 round, the system has developed, and improved to support a wider range of operating systems in real-time and from different industry protocols. “The system now supports software-enriched modern devices, even those that support applications and containers. Vdoo’s ability to support IoT device manufacturers, in addition to its supporting cast of software, enables customers an end-to-end solution, all on one platform,” added Davidi.

On expanding the round rather than going for Series C, Davidi said that (you guessed it) the ongoing global pandemic heavily impacted the decision making process. He said that “the round enabled and enables acceleration and rapid growth during a time when most markets are experiencing the exact opposite.”

According to Davidi, over the last year, the company onboarded as customers three of the biggest telco players in the U.S., along with other market giants from around the globe: “Over the last year, we’ve experienced huge market demand from device deployers such as telcos and utilities. These companies are responsible for the security of the millions of devices such as routers, connected home appliances, and smart meters that they deploy to their end-user and customer environment. With Vdoo’s new offering, they can now quickly and easily vet the security and standard compliance of these devices and continue to monitor and protect the devices over the lifecycle of the product. As a result, our newest customers include top  U.S. and global telcos and additional utilities players globally. We are happy to announce this round after receiving strong market validation, and we are thankful we were able to grow significantly in these challenging times.”

Vdoo was founded in 2017 by Netanel Davidi, Uri Alter, and Asaf Karas. The company employs a team that spans 4 continents, with offices in Israel, Japan, Germany, and the U.S. To date, the company has raised $70 million.