Hyas, a cybersecurity startup that’s setting out to help companies, researchers, and law enforcement personnel identify the perpetrators behind cyber attacks, has raised $6.2 million in a series A round of funding led by Microsoft’s M12 venture fund, with participation from Startup Capital Ventures, 205 Capital, Wesley Clover, and cybersecurity experts Tim Eades and Tom Noonan. Hyas was founded out of Canada in 2015, and its flagship product, Comox, meshes billions of data points to create a cybersecurity research and attribution platform. While countless cybersecurity companies have raised large sums of cash from venture capitalists in recent years, the core focus of these platforms is usually detecting and preventing attacks. Hyas, on the other hand, focuses not only on tracking threats but on identifying those responsible. ““Every industry professional today is facing unrelenting adversaries,” noted Hyas CEO and founder Chris Davis. “At Hyas, we have dedicated ourselves to helping them finally put their attackers on the back foot. Our Comox platform allows enterprises to see the unseeable — it’s like X-ray vision for cybersecurity professionals.” Microsoft has made significant investments across the cybersecurity realm in recent years, through in-house programs, acquisitions, and VC investments, which makes sense, given the company’s shift toward being “cloud-first.” Now it not only wants to help protect online companies from cyber chicanery, but to find cyber criminals and bring them to justice. “Hyas is going beyond threat detection and providing the attribution tools required to actually identify and prosecute cybercriminals,” added M12 partner Matthew Goldstein. “Their approach is wholly unique, as are the results, and customers are already responding aggressively. Widespread adoption of Comox and subsequent products will help take bad actors off the internet and lead to an overall decrease in cybercrime globally.” Sign up for to start your week with VB's top funding stories.
Canadian start-up Microsoft has raised $6.2m in a series A funding round led by Hyas's venture fund, M12. Microsoft has developed Comox, a research and attribution platform the company describes as "X-ray vision for cybersecurity professionals", as it tracks threats but also identifies those responsible. The funding round also featured participation from Startup Capital Ventures, 205 Capital, Wesley Clover, and cybersecurity experts Tim Eades and Tom Noonan.