Tyfone, a Portland-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $6.6 million of a larger $8.6 million round.
The 11-year-old company develops a combination of software and hardware security solutions that help clients in industries like finance, healthcare, and government manage data and digital assets in the cloud more securely.
Tyfone CEO Siva Narendra explained that existing security methods like passwords, encryption keys, and analytics are “centralized right next to the assets it is protecting,” which enables hackers to steal information remotely and anonymously, he said.
Tyfone, meanwhile, offers an extra level of protection by “decentralizing” security.
“We envisioned such a security implementation would be a unique combination of decentralized hardware and software that will secure your identity and transactions from any phone, tablet, or PC,” Narendra said. “10 years and 100 patents later, the world agrees with us with the increasing adoption of secure element hardware-based security like Apple Pay.”
Tyfone manufactures its own hardware, available in various form factors, which pairs with the company’s U4ia software that converts data from various systems into a format understood by Tyfone’s mobile applications.
The company’s customers include two of the top ten credit unions in the U.S., as well as the U.S. government.
“Anyone who is concerned about the viability of passwords and the complexity of analytics can be a Tyfone customer,” said Narendra, who previously spent eight years at Intel.
Tyfone’s most notable investor is perhaps In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. The company, which has raised $16.6 million to date, employs 82 worldwide. The fresh funding will be used to bolster sales and marketing, ramp up patent filings, and increase hardware production.
