Guardz raises $18 million Series A to help secure and insure small businesses from cyberattacks

Guardz, a cybersecurity company securing and insuring small businesses, announced on Wednesday that it has raised an $18 million Series A round led by Glilot+, the early growth fund of Glilot Capital Partners. Guardz’s existing investors Hanaco Ventures, iAngels, and GKFF Ventures participated in the oversubscribed round and were joined by new investors ClearSky. The investment comes just 10 months after Guardz launched with $10 million in Seed funding, bringing its total funding to date to $28 million.

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Guardz, which currently employs around 30 people, was founded in 2022 by Dor Eisner and Alon Lavi with the aim of creating an holistic cybersecurity solution built to empower managed service providers (MSPs) to secure and insure small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) against ever-evolving threats such as phishing, ransomware attacks, data loss, and user risks. The solution streamlines cybersecurity with its automated detection and response capabilities across users, emails, devices, data, and cloud apps.

Alon Lavi (right) and Dor Eisner.

Eisner is the former VP of Business Development at IntSights, which was acquired by Rapid7 for $350 million in 2021. Lavi was a lead architect at Argus Cyber Security, which was bought by Continental for $430 million.

CTO Alon Lavi, who has been serving in IDF reserve duty in the north of Israel for the past two months, found himself navigating the funding process and managing the company while stationed at an artillery battery. In an interview with Calcalist, Lavi discussed the challenging balancing act: "I serve in the artillery corps in the north. I volunteered even before I was called up. I am a veteran of the unit and rushed to assemble a team. We left for the north with a battery on Saturday, October 7. Those were incredibly tough days and very long weeks. We were on high alert in the field with my entire battery. I completely disconnected from work because we felt that these were the moments for which we were trained," recounts Lavi.

Lavi in IDF reserve service.

Once it became possible for him to work, Lavi sought a solution to assist the company in its fundraising efforts. "I found a house in the north that hosted me in the deployment area, and whenever I had down time I went to the house. In the last two weeks, I was allowed to work more and more, enabling me to contribute significantly to the company and be more active in raising the money, which we started just before October 7th."

With most cybersecurity solutions too cumbersome for small companies to deploy, too complicated for them to understand and maintain, and too costly, small businesses regularly turn to their MSPs to handle their cybersecurity needs. MSPs, in turn, face challenges in managing multiple companies’ cybersecurity setups across a multitude of disparate platforms, and sourcing attractive cyber insurance coverage for their customers.

According to Guardz, in less than a year it has experienced rapid growth, partnering with hundreds of MSPs and securing thousands of the businesses they manage in the U.S. and Europe.