SOC Prime Secures $11M Series A Funding - Threat Intelligence Platform

SOC Prime Secures $11 Million in Series A Funding

SOC Prime, an early-stage startup headquartered in Boston, has successfully raised $11 million in Series A funding. The company positions itself as the creator of the world’s most extensive threat detection marketplace.

Investment Details and Marketplace Expansion

This investment round was spearheaded by DNX Ventures, with Streamlined Ventures and Rembrandt Venture Partners also participating. The capital secured will be strategically allocated to broaden the reach and accelerate the adoption of SOC Prime’s marketplace.

This platform enables threat detection researchers to generate revenue from their code, ultimately bolstering the defenses of security teams against evolving cyberattacks.

Detection as Code: A Novel Approach

SOC Prime’s Detection as Code platform is conceptualized as a “Spotify for cyber threats.” It aggregates threat detection content originating from a network of nearly 400 researchers.

Users can seamlessly integrate this content into their existing SIEM and XDR platforms. Currently, the platform hosts over 130,000 detections, all meticulously aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework – a comprehensive knowledge base detailing adversary tactics and techniques.

Researcher Compensation and Content Quality

The company implements a bounty system, compensating security researchers each time their content is utilized. Subscribers also have the ability to evaluate content, influencing the size of the payouts received by researchers.

Recent data indicates that researchers earned an average of $700 in September, with top contributors exceeding $20,000 in annual income, according to TechCrunch.

Future Growth and Bounty Increases

Following this Series A funding, SOC Prime intends to initially double the bounty amounts paid to researchers. Further plans involve increasing these bounties up to fivefold within the next 12 months.

Vision for Collaborative Defense

“The collective expertise of the global threat hunting community represents a largely untapped potential for security teams globally,” stated Andrii Bezverkhyi, founder and CEO of SOC Prime.

“Our marketplace is powered by a diverse, bounty-motivated community of threat hunters, and we are dedicated to empowering them as they deliver timely and impactful detections, fostering a collaborative defense strategy against digital threats.”

Company Origins and Evolution

Founded in 2015 by Andrii Bezverkhyi, Oleksandr Bredikhin, and Ruslan Mikhalov – all originally from Ukraine – SOC Prime was established to assist organizations in establishing fundamental security protocols and enhancing threat visibility.

This initiative addresses the global shortage of cybersecurity talent and the challenges associated with alert fatigue, as reported by TechCrunch.

Impressive Growth Metrics

Over the past year, SOC Prime has experienced significant growth, including a 50% increase in its premium subscriber base, an 86% rise in monthly recurring revenue, and an 85% expansion of its active customer base.

The company currently serves over 6,000 organizations through its freemium SaaS model and boasts more than 70 paying customers, encompassing enterprises, public sector entities in the U.S. and EU, and security vendors.

Expanding Team and Researcher Network

Currently, SOC Prime employs over 80 individuals, alongside a network of more than 300 vetted threat researchers who develop and monetize their threat detection code.

The company aims to increase its workforce to 140 employees and expand its vetted researcher network to over 900 by the end of 2022.

Industry Perspective on SOC Prime’s Innovation

Hiro Rio Maeda, managing partner at DNX Ventures, commented: “Similar to how Netflix and Spotify transformed access to music and movies, we anticipate that SOC Prime will revolutionize how security teams obtain the crucial threat detection content needed to protect their organizations.”