Pwnie Express Raises $5.1 Million Series A
Leading Cyber Security Venture Capitalists back Vermont Cyber Security Company’s innovations in testing wireless devices and networks in remote offices
Penetration testing innovator, Pwnie Express, closed on its $5.1 million Series A financing led by .406 Ventures and joined by Fairhaven Capital and the Vermont Seed Capital Fund. The new capital will broaden Pwnie’s technology and product base, as well as expand sales and marketing capabilities.
Founded in 2009 by Dave Porcello, Pwnie Express has offices in Vermont and will soon open a Boston office. Winner of SC Magazine’s Industry Innovator and Cyber Defense Magazine’s Best in Class Pentest Award, Pwnie Express initially entered the market with its patent pending pentesting dropbox - the Pwn Plug. In 2012, Pwnie Express received DARPA funding to create the Power Pwn, a pentesting device in the form factor of a power strip. In Q1 2013, the company introduced the Pwn Pad, a pentester’s tablet that has received critical acclaim and is in high demand. In May, Pwnie Express released Citadel PX, a scalable, enterprise class offering which provides the ability to easily and cost effectively conduct security assessments across multiple branch offices in a distributed enterprise.
Rick Grinnell, Managing Director of Fairhaven Capital said, “Pwnie Express is uniquely positioned with its innovative product suite to solve an enterprise security gap, creating a new high growth market segment.”
Maria Cirino, co-founder of .406 Ventures, said, “Pwnie Express has solved the problem of assessing the increased security risk from wireless and BYO devices, especially in remote and branch offices. Their specialized tools and highly differentiated approach to automating remote location penetration testing enables enterprise customers to do more testing for less money which maps well to today’s economic and IT security challenges.” Cirino and Grinnell will both join the Pwnie Express Board of Directors.
About Pwnie Express:
Pwnie Express, established in 2009, is based in Berlin, Vermont with offices in Boston. Recognized by SC Magazine as the 2012 Industry Innovator, and serving over a thousand customers, Pwnie Express is the leading provider of penetration testing products for the distributed enterprise.
About .406 Ventures:
Established in 2006, .406 Ventures— whose name refers to the batting average of Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams during the 1941 baseball season — focuses exclusively on early stage, enterprise IT companies, with a particular focus on highly differentiated companies in the IT security, health care IT and Web infrastructure spaces.
About Fairhaven Capital
Fairhaven Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to a thesis-based approach to investing in North American technology companies. This approach focuses investment efforts on markets where emerging companies and technologies can create significant value.
About Vermont Seed Capital Fund:
Launched in 2010 with funding from the State of Vermont, the Vermont Seed Capital Fund is a $5M for-profit, permanently revolving, early-stage risk capital fund affiliated with the non-profit Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET).