Hey there, it’s tech reporter Alexandra Sternlicht filling in for Allie.
It seems there’s not a week that goes by without a major firm announcing a cyberattack. Last week it was Microsoft who shared that a China-sponsored cyberattack compromised over 8,000 servers worldwide, including major banks, government entities, and health care companies that stored works in the software giant’s Sharepoint product.
To combat attacks of this ilk, one upstart has raised a combined $38 million seed and Series A and is now emerging from stealth. Today, I’m sharing the news that alums of Microsoft cyber protection product Sentinel have launched cybersecurity company Legion with $38 million in funding co-led by Accel and Picture Capital, with participation from Coatue and angel investors who work at companies including Google, Crowdstrike, and Wiz.
Also, you’ve probably never heard of Picture Capital. That’s because this also marks the first public U.S. Announcement of the venture capital firm helmed by cybersecurity heavyweights Michael Fey and Dan Amiga (cofounders of $4.8 billion cybersecurity tech company Island) as well Mickey Boodaei (CEO and cofounder of Transmit Security). The firm’s founders have pooled their capital together (they’re not saying exactly how much) to invest in cybersecurity companies.
Legion, among Picture’s first investments, is a security operations center (SOC) that uses AI to detect threats within users’ computer browsers. This is different from the most popular SOC technologies on the market like Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft Sentinel, and CrowdStrike that largely detect threats via network, server, or other computing endpoint layers.
“The problem was staring right at me every day,” Legion CEO and cofounder Ely Abramovitch told me via Zoom, reflecting on his nearly five years managing Microsoft Sentinel. “My customers had very little automation in place and were struggling…this was getting worse with AI at the hands of attackers with the scale and complexity of attack rising exponentially.”
Seeing the failure of Microsoft and other enterprise technologies to meet the new crop of sophisticated and enormous attacks motivated Abramovitch and his Sentinel colleague Michael Gladishev to leave Microsoft, enlist machine learning expert Eyal Fisher, and start Legion in 2024.
Though the startup is emerging from stealth with this announcement, Legion already has dozens of customers that include a major financial institution and other “Coins2Day 20” companies, for whom Legion responds to threats 90% faster than existing players, according to Abramovitch.
For Picture Capital investor Fey, who was the chief operating officer at Symantec and chief technology officer at McAfee before founding Island, Legion’s technology is unparalleled. “Large companies do amazing things, but it’s hard to beat a well-funded startup on a specific problem,” he says of Legion. “I haven’t seen any real innovation on this out of the larger players. Not because they can’t, but because the reality is that this takes a specific set of technologists, a specific set of engineers, and it’s an expensive problem to solve.”
Alexandra Sternlicht
X:@iamsternlicht
Email:[email protected]
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VENTURE DEALS
- Ambience Healthcare, a San Francisco-based AI platform for documentation, coding, and clinical workflow, raised $243 million in Series C funding. Oak HC/FT and Andreessen Horowitz led the round and were joined by existing investors OpenAIStartupFund, KleinerPerkins, and Optum Ventures.
- Salient, a San Francisco-based provider of AI-powered financial services technology, raised $60 million in funding. AndreessenHorowitz led the round and was joined by MatrixPartners, MichaelOvitz, and YCombinator.
- Teramount, a Jerusalem, Israel-based high-speed data transfer company, raised $50 million in funding. KochDisruptiveTechnologies led the round and was joined by AMDVentures, HitachiVentures, and others.
- Lumana, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based AI video security company, raised $40 million in Series A funding. Wing Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Norwest and S Capital.
- Calo, a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based personalized meal subscription company, raised $39 billion in a Series B extension. AlJaziraCapital led the round and was joined by OraseyaCapital and existing investors NuwaCapital, AlFaisaliahGroup, and KhwarizmiVentures.
- Sparrow, a San Francisco-based employee leave management platform, raised $35 million in Series B funding. SLW led the round.
- Arbital Health, a San Francisco, Calif.-based health care technology company that provides critical infrastructure for providers and payers to successfully manage risk-based contracts, raised $31 million in Series B funding. Valtruis led the round and was joined by existing investors TransformationCapital, ShaperCapital, and HealthyVentures.
- RevealTechnology, a Bozeman, Mont.-based defense technology company, raised $30 million in Series B funding. BallisticVentures led the round and was joined by defy.vc, BoozAllenVentures, Shield Capital, Next Frontier Capital, and Madison Valley Partners.
- Wingspan, a New York City-based payroll platform for managing independent contractors, raised $24 million in Series B funding. TouringCapital led the round and was joined by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Long Journey Ventures, DistributedVentures, CompanyVentures, and 186Ventures.
- Promptfoo, a San Francisco-based platform for AI red-teaming and security testing, raised $18.4 million in Series A funding. InsightPartners led the round and was joined by AndreessenHorowitz.
-Seal Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based application security solutions provider, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Vertex Israel led the round and was joined by More Investments, SBI Group, and CCL.
- ARX Robotics, a Munich, Germany-based defense technology company, raised €11 million ($12.7 million) in funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by HVCapital.
- Trustfull, a Milan, Italy-based provider of frictionless fraud prevention technology, raised €6 million ($6.9 million) in funding. Seaya Ventures and ElevatorVentures led the round and were joined by United Ventures.
- Caspian, a San Francisco-based AI-powered customs compliance company, raised $5.4 million in seed funding. PrimaryVenturePartners led the round and was joined by Blank Ventures.
- JotPsych, a Pepper Pike, Ohio-based medical AI scribe, raised $5 million in seed funding. Base10Partners led the round.
- Retab, a San Francisco-based AI agent that builds document extraction pipelines, raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding from VentureFriends, KimaVentures, K5Global, and angel investors.
EXITS
- CRH agreed to acquire EcoMaterial Technologies, a South Jordan, Utah-based supplier of sustainable cement alternatives, from WarburgPincus, One Equity Partners, and Green Cement Investments for $1.2 billion.
- Clinisys acquired Orchard Software Corporation, a Carmel, Ind.-based provider of laboratory informatics solutions, from Francisco Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- GTCR agreed to acquire FMGSuite, a San Diego, Calif.-based provider of marketing automation software, from AuroraCapitalPartners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- IntegrumHoldings acquired Stout, a Chicago, Ill.-based advisory firm specializing in corporate finance, accounting and transaction advisory, valuation, financial disputes, claims, and investigations, from AudaxPrivateEquity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- WhiteFiber, a New York City-based AI infrastructure company, plans to raise up to $132.6 million in an offering of 7.8 million shares priced between $15 and $17 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $56 million in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2025.
PEOPLE
- 645 Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm, promoted VardanGattani to investment partner.
- StellexCapital, a New York City-based private equity firm, appointed MatthewKajfez as Operating Partner - Supply Chain Transformation Lead.