Astra Security, a provider of a security platform with continuous vulnerability scanning and pentests, announced the closing of a growth capital round—led by Emergent Ventures, with participation from the Neon Fund, Better Capital, Blume Ventures, and PointOne Capital.
The funds will accelerate development and build capabilities to uncover vulnerabilities in cloud environments. The company also plans to double down its focus on using AI to give developers and security engineers the ability to build security detections. The company has been building its platform since 2018 while remaining cash-positive.
Over 800 engineering teams in over 70 countries use Astra Security. AI powers the platform and can constantly mimic hacker behavior to check applications for vulnerabilities through fast detections. This includes PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service), a DAST vulnerability scanner, and an API Security Platform that all work together to find over 13,000 vulnerabilities. Last year, Astra Security helped its customers discover and prioritize remediation of over two million vulnerabilities.
“The cybercrime landscape is becoming increasingly complex with AI-based attacks,” said Shikhil Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Astra Security.
“Traditional, periodic pentesting is no longer enough in today’s threat environment, and Astra Security is moving more businesses to continuous pentesting to stay ahead of hackers. The engineering world has become agile, collaborative, and automation-driven, but the cybersecurity industry has lagged behind. It’s our mission to breathe life into the security space by integrating AI, adopting a hacker’s mindset, and making the tech easy and accessible,” added Shikhil Sharma.