Summer flew by for the Forgepoint team, ending with exciting news: Huntress hit centaur status with $100M ARR! Alberto spoke with Startupeable, one of top podcasts across LATAM about what makes a great CEO (and more) and hosted the latest episode of the Forgecast featuring Eddie Borrero, CISO at Blue Shield of California. Shane penned two TIPS blogs- on Shift Left for Finance and on Building Resilience with Contingent Business Interruption Insurance- while Damien spoke on investing during the AI frenzy at IPEM Paris 2024 and Andrew discussed the fine balance between data security and innovation for the NSI's CTRL+F podcast. After Don and Alberto attended Aspen Digital's 9th annual Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington DC, we were thrilled to welcome senior cybersecurity executive Brian Geffert of KPMG to our Advisory Council. Read on for the latest insights and impact from companies across the Forgepoint family. Onward!

Congratulations to SMB defenders Huntress on reaching $100M ARR! Since Forgepoint first invested by leading its Series A 4.5 years go, Huntress has achieved 20x team and ARR growth. Read the press release, Ernie's reflections, and the exclusive in Pitchbook by Rosie Bradbury who covers the cybersecurity IPO watchlist.

Advisory Council Updates

Please join us in welcoming Brian T. Geffert, CISSP, Cybersecurity Executive and Strategic Advisor to the Forgepoint Advisory Council. Brian is a distinguished cybersecurity executive with over 30 years of experience leading global security transformations at industry-leading consulting firms including KPMG and Deloitte. Brian has an exceptional track record of designing and implementing comprehensive cyber defense strategies that protect critical infrastructure, manage risks, and drive business value. As Global CISO at KPMG, Brian spearheaded the development of follow-the-sun security operations centers across 125 member firms worldwide, enhancing security standards and optimizing global operations.

Headlines and Media

Cybersecurity unicorn Huntress hits $100M ARR ahead of IPO (Pitchbook) 

Lecciones de Trabajar con Steve Jobs para Ser un CEO Excepcional (Startupeable) 

The Latest Insights

In Episode 13 of the Forgecast, Eddie Borrero, CISO at Blue Shield of California and Forgepoint Advisory Council Member, sits down with Alberto Yépez to talk about the Crowdstrike outage, his early career in technology and cybersecurity, the evolving role of the modern CISO, developing effective relationships with board members, crafting a narrative, AI governance, giving back to the community, and more.

On September 18, Aspen Digital and the Aspen Institute held the 2024 Aspen Cyber Summit at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to put cybersecurity front and center for the government officials, business leaders, nonprofit advocates, and future defenders who are crucial to creating a safer world, online and off. Aspen Digital US and Global Cybersecurity Group Members Don Dixon and Alberto Yépez actively participated in this 9th annual summit and working groups. See agenda and summit recording. 

Forgepoint Capital International Managing Director Damien Henault joined Shira Eting (Vintage Investment Partners), Hala Fadel (Eurazeo), and Romain Stokes (Quadrille Capital) to discuss how to invest wisely during the AI frenzy at IPEM Paris 2024. Their panel unearthed numerous insights, including how investors are using AI to map, calibrate, select, and evaluate investment opportunities; how they view a tiered AI market; and more.

Andrew McClure joined Jamil Jaffer, Paladin Venture Partner and CISA Cybersecurity Review Board Member, and Dr. Damien Desfontaines from Tumult Labs to discuss how differential privacy is reshaping data analysis across industries in Unleashing the Power of Differential Privacy: Balancing Data Security and Innovation for CTRL+F, the National Security Institute's Cyber and Tech Center Podcast. Watch here. 

TIPS #19: Shift Left for Finance

Dr. Shane Shook discusses why companies must shift left to enable coordinated horizonal and vertical security measures for Finance, featuring 1Kosmos, SPHERE, and Verituity.

TIPS #20: Building Resilience with Contingent Business Interruption (CBI) Insurance

Dr. Shane Shook gives a crash course on CBI and how to evaluate and invest in the right cyber insurance policies, featuring Converge Insurance, CyberCube, ReversingLabs, SolCyber, and Surefire Cyber.

Head of Talent Karl Sharman is speaking today Sep 30th at the NetDiligence® Cyber Risk Summit in Philadelphia as part of the new Career Pathways Professional Development Program for Students and Young Professionals. The program is free to all attendees, who receive a free pass to the flagship conference. Kudos to Advisory Council Member Mark Greisiger, President & CEO of NetDiligence® and his team on launching such a meaningful initiative. 

Portfolio Company Updates

1Kosmos was recognized as a Sample Vendor in not one, not two, but five 2024 Gartner Hype Cycle reports. 

CyberCube won two 2024 Intelligent Insurer Awards: Insurtech of the Year and Rising Star in Cyber Insurance (kudos to Brittany Baker, VP & Head of Solution Consulting!), celebrated a successful rebrand and was shortlisted for the CIRMagazine 2024 Risk Management Award. 

Symmetry Systems was named a Representative Vendor in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Data Security for the third year in a row and was named in the Hype Cycle for Cyber Risk Management for the first time. 

BREAKTHROUGHS

NowSecure announced iOS 18 support with the NowSecure platform.

Nudge Security added new SSPM capabilities to help companies de-risk their critical identity infrastructure. 

Secure Code Warrior released a new Engagement Insights Report feature. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Bishop Fox released a blog post on how to prepare for and execute Threat Led Penetration Testing to meet the EU's new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). 

Converge Insurance CEO Tom Kang spoke with Carrier Management about the relentless focus that InsurTechs need to have on insurance to properly serve carriers, brokers, and customers.

Constella Intelligence released a blog on the National Public Data (NPD) breach which explores its impact, immediate steps to secure your identity, and long-term strategies for protection.

Huntress CTO Chris Bisnett was a guest on CyberBytes: The Podcast, where he shared his background and journey to co-found Huntress, its transformation, new SIEM product, and more.

Lumu Cybersecurity Specialist Mario Lobo highlighted his three biggest takeaways from DEF Con 32. 

Lynx CTO Carlos Santa Cruz spoke with The Fintech Times about the work Lynx is doing to combat fraud and the role AI can play to support fraud prevention in Latin America.

NowSecure CEO Alan Snyder was a guest on CyberBytes: The Podcast, where he discussed mobile app security, the recent CrowdStrike outage, and more.

RAD Security CEO Brooke Motta was a guest on CyberBytes: The Podcast, where she discussed her career prior to co-founding RAD Security, its recent rebrand, challenges female founders face when raising and scaling, and more.

Rafay's recent study on platform engineering challenges was profiled in an article by The New Stack. 

ReversingLabs Chief Software Architect and Co-Founder Tomislav Peričin's insights on poisoned code packages were featured in a CSO Online article.

SolCyber CTO David Emerson and Paul Ducklin talked about the human element in cybersecurity in the latest episode of the Tales from the SOC podcast.

SPHERE VP of Product Strategy Rosario Mastrogiacomo spoke with Forgepoint Venture Partner Kathryn Shih about AI in identity hygiene in the latest episode of Smells Like Identity Hygiene. 

Surefire Cyber released the latest episode of the From Response to Resilience podcast. SolCyber CEO Scott McCrady joined Surefire's CDO Joe Tarraf and CTO Marc Bleicher to discuss how the companies help clients improve their security posture to increase their insurability.

Symmetry Systems announced the first edition of their new biweekly newsletter Symmetry Stack Trace.

Synadia released the latest edition of NATS Monthly.

Verituity CEO Ben Turner's insights were featured in an American Banker article on using AI to combat cross border payment fraud.

Upcoming and Recent Events

9/30-10/2 CyberCube is attending the NetDiligence Cyber Risk Summit in Philadelphia and will be at booth #31 at level 2 of the Loews. Book a meeting with the team to discover how their innovative solutions can help your company tackle cyber threats.

9/30-10/2 Surefire Cyber is attending the NetDiligence Cyber Risk Summit in Philadelphia and is a Silver Level sponsor. Director, DFIR Luke Emrich and Chief People Officer Jenna Keesee will be speaking during the conference.

10/1, 6am PT Lynx is hosting a webinar Speeding Ahead: Harnessing AI Against the Growing Threat of Money Mules.

10/3 SPHERE will be at FutureCon Columbus. The team will be there to chat about IAM and identity management- use code "SPHERE" for a free pass.

10/3, 8am PT ReversingLabs is hosting a webinar sharing the RL Threat Research Team's latest discoveries from Q3 2024. 

10/3, 12pm PT Nudge Security is hosting an Infosec Innovators Lunch in San Francisco. Register here to network and learn how you can improve identity, data, and genAI governance and security.

10/8 Symmetry Systems is attending CISO XC Dallas. Book a meeting with the team and join them for dinner. 

10/8, 8am PT NowSecure is hosting their October TechTalk Identifying Mobile App Risk with Progressive Testing through PTaaS.

10/11, 4pm PT Synadia is celebrating the nomadic app revolution, in San Francisco as part of a16z #SFTechWeek. Join for cocktails and conversations - advance registration required. 

10/14-10/16 1Kosmos is attending Authenticate 2024 in Carlsbad, CA. Meet with the team- book your conversation here. 

10/18, 4pm PT Synadia is celebrating the nomadic app revolution, in Los Angeles as part of a16z #LATechWeek. For beverages, bites, and conversations - advance registration required. 

10/21-10/25 Nudge Security will be at the Gartner IT Symposium in Orlando. Book a meeting with the team.

MULTIPLE DATES Huntress is going on the road with Huntress Roadshow and visiting cities and venues across the US and the UK.

ON DEMAND Lumu is hosting a live training on how their latest features can help you sharpen your company's threat-hunting capabilities, detect emerging attacks, and tackle threat actors with confidence.

ON DEMAND SolCyber CEO Scott McCrady spoke with Jeremy Snyder from FireTail.io about the future of API security in the latest episode of Security Shorts with Scott. 

PORTFOLIO JOBS

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