The latest from the /Forefront/ - Forgepoint Capital International launches; our Fall 2024 Advisory Council Meeting and Dinner; Anitian's Series D; introducing Forgepoint Foreward, and more breakthroughs and insights across the Forgepoint team and portfolio.
Fall has been an action-packed. We launched Forgepoint Capital International, hosted our Fall 2024 Advisory Council Meeting and Dinner, and recognized this year's Impact Award recipients: thank you Aaron Hughes, Elena Kvochko, and Jerry Kowalski. Anitian announced a successful $7M Series D round while Hyperproof joined the portfolio. We welcomed three new leaders to our Global Advisory Council: Justin Foster, Hector Saldaña, and Sandip Wadje. Meanwhile, the Forgepoint team and portfolio continue to share insights, including forward-looking new research reporting of our own. Enough of the prelude- sit back, relax, and enjoy our not-so-brief review of what's been happening on the forefront of cybersecurity, AI, and infrastructure innovation!
Anitian, leaders in compliance automation, announced $7M in Series D financing led by Sageview Capital with continued support from Forgepoint. Funding will accelerate the launch of Anitian's AI-driven automation and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to reduce the time and cost of attaining FedRAMP and CMMC compliance. Anitian also announced new CEO Chris Finan. Read the press release. Congratulations to Chris, Tom Kelly, Anitian, and Sageview Capital!
Hyperproof, providers of next gen automated security assurance and compliance operations, joined the Forgepoint family. Welcome Craig Unger and the Hyperproof team!
Fall 2024 Advisory Council Meeting and Dinner
We held our Fall 2024 Advisory Council Meeting, our annual invite-only gathering of 150+ stakeholders across the Forgepoint community. Designed to spark learning and cultivate collaboration, our portfolio CEOs, Advisory Council members, and other industry leaders, government executives, select co-investors, partners, and experts enjoyed a full program, networking, cocktails, and dinner. Read the recap.
As part of our program, Billy Gouveia, CEO and Founder of leading incident response firm Surefire Cyber, presented on The Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack.Learn more in his guest blog.
Special thanks to our speakers and guests for your insights and participation. Here’s to your continued leadership and all you do to advance innovation!
Justin Foster, CTO of Forescoutand former CTO and Co-Founder of Cysiv (acq. Forescout). Justin leads global Research and Development at Forescout and has over 25 years of experience in information security, encompassing server and cloud security, network security, security analytics, and encryption. Previously, he was the CTO and Co-founder of Cysiv, a SOC as a Service provider, and prior to that he held engineering, product management, and go to market roles at Trend Micro. Justin held the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification for 15 years and has an Advanced Executive Certificate in General Management from Queen’s University.
Hector Saldaña, Co-founder & Sr. Managing Partner, Inventity & Sr. Advisor, Ballistic Ventures.Hector Saldaña is a world-business integrator, with a track record of international success, profit-enhancing partnerships, insightful strategy development, and a keen ability to successfully navigate the corporate world across contexts. A business veteran who quickly proved his worth early on at Apple, Hector is a global business development leader with extensive experience in Latin America and Asia, including Japan. His creative, entrepreneurial spirit and executive management skills have led to numerous accomplishments in company formation and venture investing in the technology industry.
Sandip Wadje, Managing Director and Head of Emerging Technology Risks at BNP Paribas.With over 23 years of experience in cybersecurity, IT risk, and compliance, Sandip Wadje specializes in Cloud, AI, and Digital Assets. He excels in simplifying complex risks, driving transformative change, and influencing Fortune 500 stakeholders to enhance their technology and cyber initiatives. Recognized for shaping regulatory guidelines, he actively shares insights with industry forums and regulators. Sandip has led global teams, developed Centers of Excellence, and advanced cutting-edge technologies, earning a reputation as a leader in managing diverse, high-impact portfolios.
We are excited to release the first edition of Forgepoint Forward for Q4 2024: What’s Ahead in AI Governance Forgepoint Forward is a new quarterly series that captures critical categories for innovation and investment. Created for entrepreneurs, information security leaders, and the broader technology community, each report combines extensive primary and secondary research along with insights from experts across our community. Read our blog with takeaways and the full report on the state of the AI Governance market.
Team Updates
Damien Henault and Casilda Angulospoke at #18ENISE in León, Spain, hosted by INCIBE - Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad. Damien shared insight on The Future of Cybersecurity: What Investors are Looking For while Casilda gave guidance on How to Make a High-Impact Deck for International Investors.
Andrew McClurewas promoted from Fellow to Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute in recognition for his ongoing contributions to the work of the NSI's Cyber and Tech Center.
Michael Cortez spoke on the VC Insights, Funding the Future panel at HSBC's Cybersecurity Innovation Day in New York City, while Ernie Bio spoke at the San Francisco Cybersecurity Innovation Day.
Karl Sharman spoke about the power of networking and LinkedIn for career development at the recent NetDiligence Cyber Risk Conference in Philadelphia. Converge Insurance, CyberCube, and Surefire Cyber were also there, with team members speaking on panels and meeting with attendees.
The Latest Insights
In Episode 14 of the Forgecast, Vinnie Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of Bishop Fox, speaks with Ernie Bio about working with the NSA at 17, co-founding and bootstrapping Bishop Fox, deciding to pursue venture funding, what it takes to build a customer-centric business, developing a scalable offensive security platform, trends in Gen AI and enterprise resiliency, and more.
In Episode 15 of the Forgecast, Cait Conley, Senior Advisor to the Director of CISA, sits down with Andrew McClure in a special pre-election episode to discuss US election security, the current threat landscape, CISA’s work to secure elections and bolster public confidence and trust, the critical role state and local election officials play, and more.
In Episode 16 of the Forgecast, Ricardo Villadiego, CEO and Founder of Lumu, speaks with Leo Casusol about his early career, overcoming obstacles as a Colombia-based cybersecurity entrepreneur, venturing into international markets, using AI at Lumu to make “magic” and uncover network threats, shifting to meet the evolving landscape, SecOps automation, advice for entrepreneurs, and more.
Dr. Shane Shookexplains how companies are at risk of disinformation and misinformation and what to do about this dual threat, featuring Constella Intelligence and Surefire Cyber.
Lynx was named to CB Insights' Fintech 100 list, a showcase of the world's 100 most promising private fintech companies. Congratulations to Lynx for the recognition!
