Automotive cybersecurity firm Karamba raises $12M in Series B

Karamba Security, provider of cybersecurity solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles has raised $12 million in a Series B investment round led by YL Ventures and Fontinalis Partners. The fresh funding brings Karamba’s total investment to $17 million, one year after closing its seed funding round. According to the company the investment will be used to expand customer support, sales and R&D organizations so that it can meet the rapidly growing demand. Apart from existing investors, the Series B saw participation from GlenRock Israel with new strategic investments from Paladin Capital Group, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Presidio Ventures and Asgent. Karamba Security claims to have introduced a prevention software that protects the car, based on its factory settings, and blocks hacking attempts as they deviate from the car’s factory settings. This deterministic approach ensures consumer safety by preventing the attack before hackers succeed to infiltrate the car and do harm. When Karamba announced its solution in April 2016, the automotive industry was mostly evaluating network security solutions, adapted to the car. Such solutions are based on statistical modeling and are prone to false alarms, aka “false positives,” that risk lives. An example would be the brakes failing because a legitimate command was mistakenly identified as malicious and blocked. “What we found compelling from the start was that Karamba Security solved this industry-wide problem and eliminated the risk of false positives. As a result, it has shifted the automotive security paradigm from detection to prevention,” said Yoav Leitersdorf, Managing Partner, YL Ventures and Board Member, Karamba Security. “Until Karamba, there were no preventive solutions with zero false positives, and many questioned whether it was even achievable,” added Chris Thomas, a founder and partner at Fontinalis Partners who also sits on Karamba’s board. “Now that the industry and investors are aware that prevention is attainable, they are choosing Karamba, and in doing so, they are enabling safer outcomes.”   In a little more than a year since coming out of stealth, Karamba claims to have engaged with 16 automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers. The company states that The global market for cybersecurity for cars was estimated by Mordor Intelligence to grow from $17 million in 2015 to $1.1 billion by the end of 2020 – a CAGR of 102.62% “Prevention is key. Our technology makes sure that only what’s part of the factory settings can run. Once the system recognizes foreign code, or an in-memory attack, it prevents it from executing. Our deterministic approach stands in sharp contrast to network-based solutions that rely on probabilities to try to identify attacks in progress and block them – an after-the-fact technique that creates safety risks,” said Ami Dotan, Co-Founder and CEO, Karamba.