Synack raises $21.25 million in Series C round

The company, best known for assembling a team that took only four hours to find critical vulnerabilities in U.S. military systems, announced a $21.25 million Series C funding round led by Microsoft Ventures.

The company best known for assembling a team that took only four hours to find critical vulnerabilities in U.S. military systems announced Tuesday a $21.25 million Series C funding round led by Microsoft Ventures.

Total investment in the California-based Synack is now $55.25 million. Its bug bounty and penetration testing platform operates with a more closed and exclusive model than competitors, as the company aims to emphasize actionable intelligence and minimize noise.

Founded by two former NSA researchers, Synack vetted a team of white-hat hackers that has since set up bounty programs for the Department of Defense and Internal Revenue Service. Its DoD work was done in concert with HackerOne, another bug bounty platform that received $40 million in Series C funding in February.

Compared with competitors, Synack employs a relatively smaller and more heavily vetted pool of hackers to work with clients. The process to become a part of Synack’s red ream involves an application, interview, skill demonstration and background check. Less than 10 percent of applicants are accepted.

In addition to the unspecified number of hackers working on the platform, Synack employs about 100 people and boasts 100 customers.

The money will be used to develop the platform and Hydra, the company’s vulnerability scanning tool that typically looks at clients’ systems before the human researchers even enter the fray. Synack also looking to expand across the Western world as well as the Asia Pacific region.

Watch our interview with Synack CEO Jay Kaplan below.

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