watchTowr Raises USD2.25 Million Seed Funding to Empower Enterprises to Continuously Secure their Attack Surface from Evolving Cyber Threats

watchTowr, a Singapore-based cybersecurity start-up, has announced that it had raised USD2.25 million in seed funding from Wavemaker Partners and Vulcan Capital.

watchTowr also publicly launched its Continuous Attack Surface Testing (CAST) solution, the firm said in a press release.

watchTowr is backed by leading global and regional venture capital firms - Wavemaker Partners, Southeast Asia's leading VC investing in early-stage enterprise, deep tech, and sustainability startups, and Vulcan Capital, the multi-billion-dollar investment arm of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen.

watchTowr will use this funding round to scale its business and CAST solution, which is already being leveraged by some of Southeast Asia's most prominent enterprises and brands in the banking, insurance, fintech and technology industries.

watchTowr directly addresses the challenges organisations face in managing and securing their external attack surface. Through the dramatic increase in remote working practices and rapid adoption of cloud and external technology — an organisation's attack surface is ever-expanding, and in some cases, expanding outside of its security capabilities. A lack of attack surface visibility, combined with the limitations of point-in-time security assurance approaches like penetration testing, leaves weaknesses for attackers to exploit — as seen in the significant increase in successful cyber-attacks.

Gavin Lee, General Partner at Wavemaker Partners, said: ”Thanks to the development of the Internet and the cloud, an organisation's IT estate is now more complex and can be largely external-facing, exposing them to the emergence of new threats and a greater level of cyber risk that traditional security solutions cannot manage. watchTowr understands the cybersecurity market and the security assurance needs of its customers and has built a modern solution that addresses the continuous threat of cyberattacks.”

“watchTowr brings a powerful and urgently needed combination of technology and cybersecurity expertise to market,” said Tommy Teo, Managing Director & Head of Southeast Asia for Vulcan Capital.

“Managing the daily challenges of protecting an organisation from cyber threats poses one of the most significant undertakings an organisation faces in this coming decade. watchTowr addresses this by helping to deliver a next-generation platform that levels the playing field for organisations; in today's dynamic and fast-moving cybersecurity environment.”

watchTowr will also use this initial capital investment to expand its team of dedicated and experienced cybersecurity practitioners who can bring their years of experience to develop the watchTowr Platform further. The company has also been accredited by CREST, the global certification body for cybersecurity professionals.

Benjamin Harris, Founder and CEO at watchTowr, said: “The team at watchTowr are experienced offensive cybersecurity experts; we have spent years simulating the world's most sophisticated cyber threats and attacks to help secure global institutions and brands that we all rely on daily.

“Our first-hand experience and research have enabled us to be uniquely positioned to develop the watchTowr Platform. It is designed to provide organisations with a hybrid of cutting-edge technology and certified ex-adversary expertise to give organisations a continuous and holistic understanding of their security posture.

“We have designed the watchTowr Platform to go beyond antiquated, traditional security assurance approaches of penetration testing and bug bounty programs. Scope and time restrictions imposed by traditional security assurance approaches now pose significant cyber risks to organisations. The watchTowr Platform provides organisations with the continuous visibility and scalable assurance they need, combined with regulatory compliance management, to keep up with the flood of emerging weaknesses and the rate of adversary evolution.”

Harris added: “Our investors and the team at watchTowr are committed to developing the watchTowr Platform and believe that this is just the beginning of our mission in empowering our customers in staying one step ahead of even the most sophisticated cybercriminals.”