Israel-based cybersecurity startup Vicarius closes $5M in seed funding for its predictive cyberthreat technology

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that 90 percent of security incidents reported are caused by exploiting defects in the code or design of software. In 2019 alone over 17,000 software vulnerabilities were discovered – a nearly 300% increase in a decade. Enter Vicarius, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based predictive cyberthreat provider, that protects organizations against exploitation of yet-to-be-discovered software vulnerabilities. Vicarius develops machine learning technology for protecting cloud software by predicting and eliminating software vulnerabilities

Today, Vicarius announced today seed funding of $5 million accelerate the company’s international growth and operating scale, it will also build out Vicarius’ Tel Aviv and East Coast US offices and its product offering, making it available to more clients across multiple industries. The round was led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), with innogy Innovation Hub and Goldbell also investing.

Founded in 2016, by seasoned cyber experts Michael Assraf, Roi Cohen and Yossi Ze’evi, Vicarius is the first cybersecurity platform globally to empower companies with proactive attack mitigation strategies for software vulnerabilities in real-time. Using Machine Learning, Vicarius’ proprietary Vulnerability Assessment (VA) technology detects exposures in software before hacks occur, and offers customers built-in, immediate solutions and prioritization tools in a functional ‘risk-snapshot’ dashboard to securely reinforce threat zones.

“Despite the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyberthreats and software weaponization, little has changed in over a decade in the management and ‘patching’ or upgrading systems against cyberthreats,” said Michael Assraf, CEO & Co-Founder at Vicarius. “Unlike current approaches that reactively map out potential threats based on pre-existing vulnerability data, Vicarius’ algorithm maps predicts vulnerabilities and potential zero-days based on live attack scenarios, offering an elimination pathway suitable for the zero-day malware era.”

Vicarius’ TOPIA technology patches vulnerabilities and also offers interim threat protection for target areas that have not yet directly been addressed, saving customers from the operational risks of reboots and the time it takes to patch latent security gaps. This pre-emptive approach is ideal for organizations with poor cyber hygiene as it ensures a clean and well-maintained network environment that is far less attractive for hackers to exploit.

Vicarius’ US team will be based out of the recently launched the JVP International NYC Cyber Center, which will play a vital role not only in protecting cities, banks, utilities, and healthcare systems, but also democracies, the integrity of information, and the freedom of the individual.