Intel leads $74M funding in ZeroFOX to protect organizations from digital threats and deep fakes

In an age of constant connectivity and social sharing, users have become the primary target for the adversary. This raises a challenge for individuals and organizations alike to protect themselves and digital assets on social media platforms. Enter ZeroFox, a public attack surface protection startup company that provides both targeted protection and global insights into the world of social media threats. By continuously monitoring social platforms for cyber attacks, information loss, social engineering campaigns, account compromise and fraud, ZeroFOX protects organizations from the next generation of digital threats.

Today, ZeroFOX announced today it has raised $74 million funding to accelerate its global expansion and advance its award-winning artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The round was by Intel Capital, with participation from  existing investors NEA, Highland Capital Partners, Redline Capital Management, Hercules Capital and Core Capital.

Founded in 2013 by Chris Cullison, Evan Blair, Hillary Herlehy, James Foster, and Robert Francis, the Baltimore, Maryland-based ZeroFOX  safeguards modern organizations from dynamic security risks across social, mobile, surface, deep and dark web, email and collaboration platforms. Led by a team of information security and high-growth company veterans, ZeroFOX is known as an innovator in the space releasing the first commercially available deepfake detection AI engine, scalable object detection and optical character recognition AI tools for image-driven social and digital platforms, and email BEC impersonation detection and remediation.

Using diverse data sources and artificial intelligence-based analysis, the ZeroFOX Platform identifies and remediates targeted phishing attacks, credential compromise, data exfiltration, brand hijacking, executive and location threats and more. The patented ZeroFOX SaaS technology processes and protects millions of posts, messages and accounts daily across the social and digital landscape, spanning LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack, Instagram, Pastebin, YouTube, mobile app stores, the deep & dark web, domains, email and more

“ZeroFOX is dedicated to helping customers proactively address threats initiated by today’s cyber agitators that occur across a quickly growing publicly-accessible attack surface. This new class of threats is more difficult to identify and even tougher to remediate. The challenges of both volume and sophistication of these types of attacks are accelerating at a pace that the security industry has never seen before; entire businesses and industries are at risk due to the gaps in security coverage unaddressed by legacy security vendors,” said James C. Foster, CEO of ZeroFOX. “This round of funding led by Intel Capital, one of the most respected investors in the world, and our new artificial intelligence development partnership with Intel via the Intel AI Builders program, solidifies ZeroFOX’s market leadership in next-generation protection. With this new infusion of capital, we will accelerate our AI innovation, strengthen our intellectual property, and further our international expansion – all in service of our mission: protecting the world’s leading organizations from targeted digital attacks.”

Business use of public platforms, such as Microsoft 365, G Suite, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack, Instagram, Apple and Google mobile app stores and more, are becoming the primary success driver and number one enterprise risk challenge for modern organizations. Based on ZeroFOX’s 2019 Financial Services Digital Threat Report, digital threat activity for financial services has increased 56 percent year-over-year – with other industries facing similar challenges, including but not limited to the retail industry which endures an average of 6+ brand abuses daily.

Today businesses struggle with the scale, complexity and lack of visibility into threats such as account compromise, fraudulent profiles, business email compromise and spear-phishing on digital platforms. With unmatched visibility, detection and remediation for these modern threats across digital platforms, and with next-generation AI analysis including its Deepstar deepfake detection capability, the ZeroFOX Platform protects thousands of customers from dynamic security risks.

By analyzing millions of content pieces per day, ZeroFOX protects hundreds of thousands of digital brands and accounts by providing full attack and incident identification, robust threat intelligence, and automated policy-based remediation and action at global scale.

“ZeroFOX has established itself as the global leader in the public attack surface protection marketplace,” said Anthony Lin, vice president and senior managing director, Intel Capital. “The company’s best-in-class SaaS platform, AI capabilities and exceptional business profile are a testament to the unquestionable value it delivers to customers. We’re looking forward to collaborating with the company to accelerate its strategic expansion globally and its compelling technology roadmap.”

Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, datacenter and cloud, 5G, next-generation compute and a wide range of other disruptive technologies. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$12.6 billion in more than 1,560 companies worldwide, and 677 portfolio companies have gone public or participated in a merger. Intel Capital curates thousands of business development introductions each year between its portfolio companies and the Global 2000.