High Alpha spin-off secures funding
INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — A cyber risk management company has closed on a $3.5 million seed round of funding, less than four months after launching out of the High Alpha venture studio. Indianapolis-based Trava Security has created a software platform designed to help small and mid-size businesses bridge the gap between cyber risk management and cyber insurance. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jim Goldman says securing the funding in such a short amount of time is a testament to the demand for the company’s services.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Goldman said the funding represents the concept of having the right idea at the right time.
“So much of success in business is opportunity and timing and so I think we really have identified a need that hadn’t been being met, for very good reason,” said Goldman. It’s difficult. It crosses industries. We’re both a cyber insurance company and a SaaS platform; it’s difficult for people to wrap their head around.”
Goldman says Trava’s platform assesses a company’s cyber risk and then help to mitigate the risks that are identified. Then, Trava helps the company find an appropriate cyber insurance policy to help them close out any cyber risks.
Goldman says the funding round will help propel Trava toward its next goal.
“The big investment in the next stage of our company growth is to complement the development that’s been done so far on our front-end assessment tool and really leverage all the data we’ve been collecting to date and building what we’re calling our cyber loss prediction data platform,” said Goldman. “Insurance companies right now don’t have good data that can relate cyber risk posture to underwriting potential cyber losses correlated to that cyber risk.”
The funding round was led by San Francisco-based TDF Ventures, with participation from High Alpha Capital in Indianapolis and M25 in Chicago.
“In only a few months since launch, Trava has demonstrated that they can provide a holistic cyber risk solution unlike any others I’ve seen in the market,” Matt Bressler, principal at TDF Ventures, said in a news release. “We think this growth funding and our investment partners will enable them to scale quickly and continue developing cyber and insurance products that provide small- and medium-sized businesses unparalleled security and financial protection.”
Goldman says the company will also use the funding to fill key roles in machine learning, software engineering, and data science, as well as sales and customer success. The company expects to more than double its workforce over the next year.