Prelude cybersecurity defenses
Prelude, a Washington, D.C-based startup that helps organizations harden their cyber defenses through the use of autonomous red-teaming, has secured $24 million in Series A funding.
Prelude — which describes itself as the first autonomous platform built to attack, defend and train critical assets through continuous red-teaming — isn’t your average cybersecurity startup. Its founder, Spencer Thompson, doesn’t have a background in the industry and started out in career discovery with an app called Sokanu, which racked up 10-million-plus monthly users before it was sold in 2021.
Prelude aims to harden an organization’s defenses by continuously “asking” it questions through the form of denatured cyberattacks. These attacks respond to the latest vulnerabilities and cyber events, turning complex technical descriptions into easily deployable questions.
These questions, which are delivered to any endpoint, cloud environment, user or piece of technology, are designed to automatically integrate with defensive tools, and remediations on how to improve the security of a system are provided once the attack has been run.
The company, perhaps unsurprisingly given Thompson’s background, also believes strongly in training, having partnered with MITRE to help transform sophomores into security engineers.
The company’s $24 million Series A investment, which was led by Sequoia Capital with backing from a number of investors including Insight Partners, IA Ventures, Four Rivers, and Rise of the Rest, will be used to accelerate the development of its platform and expanding its team of security engineers.
Prelude cybersecurity defenses
