Digital Shadows has raised $14 million for its security platform that helps businesses monitor the darkest corners of the internet
The seven-year-old company, jointly headquartered in London and San Francisco, has a platform that searches the darkest corners of the internet looking for the chatter associated with threats against specific organisations.
Digital Shadows, founded by CEO Alastair Paterson and CTO James Chappell in 2011, claims that its flagship product, SearchLight, can continuously monitor over 100 million data sources in 27 languages across the internet. Sources include social media, crime forums, GitHub, and encrypted "dark" nets such as Tor and I2P.
SearchLight cross-references customer data with the monitored sources to highlight where sensitive corporate data has been leaked online, or where other breaches may be occurring.
The Digital Shadows platform is designed to show companies potential threats, evidence of data loss, and instances where a brand's reputation might be being damaged. Digital Shadows also has a number of human analysts in its intelligence operations team that compile threat reports for customers based on data collected by SearchLight.
The funding will be used to further develop the Digital Shadows product and expand the Digital Shadows team from 60 (40 in London and 20 in San Francisco) to 120.
Business Insider asked Digital Shadows who is using its technology but the company said it was unable to reveal client names. It did, however, say that most of its customer growth is coming from financial services, retail, and manufacturing.
The Series B funding round was led by Trinity Ventures, while existing investors Storm Ventures, TenEleven Ventures, and Passion Capital also participated. Trinity Ventures general partner Fred Wang will join the board of Digital Shadows.
"Digital Shadows' remarkable growth and the rapid adoption of its SearchLight offering by large enterprises impressed us, as did its strong management team," said Wang. "Trinity's investment will help Digital Shadows capitalise on the widespread demand for a solution that provides buyers with a 'beyond the boundary' view of their organisations."
Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital and investor director for Digital Shadows, said the startup's approach provides relevant threat intelligence, while reducing the risk and burden on customers. "Its rapid expansion into the US market, and client growth across broader Europe, has given us more than enough confidence and we are thrilled to further invest in the business," she said.