Versive, a US-based cybersecurity technology developer backed by media company Bloomberg and insurance firm New York Life, secured $12.7m in funding yesterday in a round that included investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs was joined by fellow existing investors Madrona Venture Group, Formation 8 and Vulcan Capital, and the round increased Versive’s overall funding to $54.7m.
The company’s Versive Security Engine (VSE) platform uses artificial intelligence to adversarial behaviour, targeting what it calls ThreatCases, a contextualised set of evidence that indicates the presence of a threat within a client’s network.
Although the technology is centred on cybersecurity, Versive, which was formerly known as Context Relevant, aims to extend it to other situations where AI can be of use.
Bloomberg first invested in Versive as part of its $7m series A round in 2013, participating through its data-focused corporate venturing unit Bloomberg Beta, alongside Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, and angel investors including Geoff Entress.
Versive raised another $34.5m in a two-tranche series B round backed by Bloomberg Beta, New York Life, Goldman Sachs, Madrona, Vulcan Capital, Formation 8 and financial services provider Bank of America Merrill Lynch that closed in late 2014.
Joe Polverari, chief executive of Versive, said: “We know organisations are overwhelmed by data, unable to detect high-risk patterns in their network.
“We know that even with unlimited human resources, customers still wouldn’t be able to identify these patterns, systematically at scale. Therefore, we designed the VSE to focus analysts on legitimate, critical threats and to make investigation easy with transparent ThreatCases.”