January 18, 2024 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

RIDGEFIELD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kusari, a software supply chain security startup, today announced it raised $8 million through combined investments in Pre-Seed and Seed Round funding. The Seed Round was led by J2 Ventures and co-led by Glasswing Ventures with participation from Unusual Ventures, which previously invested $2 million in Pre-Seed funding.

“Code breaches are increasingly becoming a top priority for Chief Information Security Officers”

Kusari was established in June 2022 to address the lack of transparency within the software supply chain and development lifecycle, which can lead to costly security vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity Ventures recently reported that the global annual cost of software supply chain attacks to businesses will reach $60 billion in 2025, and is expected to increase to $138 billion by 2031. Transparency into the software supply chain will allow organizations to identify potential weak points and resolve issues faster, helping them maintain trust with partners and minimize risk.

Kusari’s founders, Tim Miller, Michael Lieberman, and Parth Patel, are seasoned navigators of software supply chains with experience leading supply chain security and cloud engineering at Citi, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Bridgewater Associates, and Raytheon. They have personally dealt with the complicated problem of securing software delivery while enabling developer productivity within highly regulated, security-conscious environments. The founding team provides technical leadership and guidance in the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), which brings together the industry’s most important open source security initiatives and the individuals and companies that support them. The Kusari founders also have created many open source projects, including Graph for Understanding Artifact Composition (GUAC), which is supported by industry-leading financial services and technology companies, including Yahoo!, Guidewire, Google, Microsoft, Red Hat, and ClearAlpha Technologies.

Open source libraries comprise the majority of most software written today. Each relies on other libraries, creating a complicated tree of dependencies. Securing a software supply chain starts with understanding how each piece is put together. It can be deceivingly difficult for an organization to understand what this looks like, as modern software development practices work to hide this complexity in favor of easy development.

Kusari introduced and achieved market validation for GUAC in 2023 to address this specific problem. GUAC is an open source tool that addresses the lack of transparency by organizing software supply chain information, like software bills of materials (SBOMs), into a knowledge graph. The project has a diverse community of 50 contributors and has garnered 1.1k GitHub stars.

Kusari will use the funding to accelerate and build on its continued momentum in developing software supply chain security solutions that enable organizations to achieve actionable insights, reduce incident response costs, and relieve the burden on security and developer teams.

“Kusari’s blend of team, technology, and significant adoption, even at this early stage, position them to be a market leader. Our initial indication from government agencies for what they’re building revealed a massive commercial market. GUAC’s potential cannot be overstated,” said Jonathan Bronson, Ph.D., co-founder and Managing Partner of J2 Ventures.

“Code breaches are increasingly becoming a top priority for Chief Information Security Officers,” said Kleida Martiro, Partner, Glasswing Ventures. “In an era where software supply chain attacks are on the rise, the demand for stringent security measures has never been more critical. At the helm of Kusari, a team of seasoned industry veterans, including Tim, Michael, and Parth, are steering the company toward new heights. We are immensely proud of our investment in Kusari. Their unparalleled knowledge and innovative approach position them at the cutting edge, as they lead the charge in defining and delivering groundbreaking security solutions in this vital and evolving space.”

“Identifying where vulnerabilities lie in your software supply chain is complex and time-consuming. With the ever-increasing number of vulnerable packages discovered each year, organizations need a single source of truth about their code,” said Tim Miller, co-founder and CEO of Kusari. “Kusari will be that source of end-to-end transparency and will bring about insights for users to drive more secure outcomes for their organizations. Our focus is on helping users solve their very real security problems.”

To learn more about what this funding announcement means for Kusari, please visit: https://www.kusari.dev/blog/seed-funding

About Kusari

Kusari was founded by three cybersecurity experts on a mission to bring transparency and security to the software supply chain. Backed by J2 Ventures, Glasswing Ventures, and Unusual Ventures, Kusari seeks to help organizations identify and quickly remediate supply chain vulnerabilities while powering secure development practices. Kusari is an advocate of open source security as a creator and maintainer of GUAC, and holds positions of influence in the open source software (OSS) security community.

About J2 Ventures

J2 Ventures is an early stage venture-capital firm that specializes in companies looking to bring transformative technologies to the private sector while also serving the unmet needs of the U.S. government. The firm focuses on areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, healthcare and material science. Formed in 2020 by Alexander Harstrick and Jonathan Bronson, J2 Ventures has had a meteoric rise in the VC landscape, known for building strong relationships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and creating value by leveraging the firm’s significant resources and network. The firm’s partners have invested over $4 billion in venture (both private equity and defense) and approach each investment with a “whole-firm” mindset that ensures the firm brings the best to the entrepreneur. J2 Ventures is based in Boston, Massachusetts with additional presences in Washington, DC, San Francisco, California and London, England.

About Glasswing Ventures

Glasswing Ventures is a first-capital-in venture capital firm dedicated to investing in the next generation of frontier technology and AI startups that enable the rise of the intelligent enterprise. The firm was founded by visionary partners with decades of experience in these markets, a disciplined investment approach, and a strong track record of industry-leading returns. Glasswing leverages its deep domain expertise and world-leading advisory councils to invest in exceptional founders who transform markets and revolutionize industries.

Contacts

Lizzy Harris
PR for Kusari
Kusari@colabcomms.co

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