Cybersecurity startup Critical Informatics has been busy so far in 2017.
The company Wednesday announced a flurry of moves, including a new CEO, a $3.25 million funding round, and plans to open a new office in Seattle.
Critical Informatics is based in Bremerton, Wash., and it focuses on cybersecurity solutions for mid-sized companies in the financial services, healthcare and public sectors. The company will use the new funding round to beef up sales and marketing efforts, strengthen relationships with key industries and government agencies and develop new products to prevent and respond to cyber intrusions.
Alan Frazier’s East Seattle Partners led the Series A round. Frazier, founder and chairman of healthcare investment firm Frazier Healthcare Partners, will join Critical Informatics’ Board of Directors.
Critical Informatics also announced it has brought in Garrett Silver, a former executive with Capital One’s Seattle office and CEO in residence at Madrona Venture Labs, to be CEO. Silver said many cybersecurity solutions don’t get the job done because companies don’t have the right mix of technology and skilled people to quickly and accurately assess threats.
“Security analytics and related technologies have failed to deliver the value they promise, because companies lack the human expertise to act on them,” Silver said in a statement. “We use sophisticated security analytics as a layer underneath human expertise, giving our professionals a sort of ‘augmented reality’ view of the threat landscape our customers face.
One of the best ways to get more human expertise is to go where the top talent is, and in this case, that is Seattle. Though it will continue to be based in Bremerton, Critical Informatics is opening an office in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood to house marketing, sales, and some engineering personnel.
The company has nearly doubled from nine employees at this time last year, to 17 today. By the end of the year, the company said its headcount could reach approximately 30 people.
