Cigent Announces $7.6M Series A Funding Round; In-Q-Tel, CyberJunction, WestWave Capital Participate

FORT MYERS, Fla., April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cigent^® Technology, today announced the close of a $7.6M Series A funding with In-Q-Tel^®, CyberJunction, WestWave Capital, and several prominent individual investors participating.

The funding enables Cigent to commercialize and bring to market Cigent Data Defense. This breakthrough approach protects companies and individuals from ransomware, data theft, and malicious insider attacks, ending 30 years of failure by the cybersecurity industry. Cigent Data Defense leverages software and hardware products to prevent network, endpoint, and cloud-based data infiltration even after a network has been breached.

Cigent Data Defense combines Cigent's Dynamic Data Defense Engine (D³E^®) software with Cigent Secure SSDs™ and takes a different approach to protect against data theft and ransomware than previous cybersecurity technology. Cigent's D³E for Windows^® is the first and only data defense software to rely on file-level Zero-Trust access controls to protect sensitive files against any threat. D³E relies on multi-factor authentication and encryption to secure sensitive files anywhere they are shared or stored, even after a security breach. D³E can be used as a standalone software solution or in tandem with Cigent Secure SSDs. Cigent Data Defense is designed for use by individuals, small-to-medium-size businesses, corporate enterprises and government entities.

"In-Q-Tel scouts the global market for cutting-edge technologies that have the potential for high national security impact, and we're excited to be an investor in Cigent, which has built technology to protect against ransomware, data theft and malicious insider theft," offered Bentz Tozer, Senior Member, Technical Staff at In-Q-Tel, Inc. 

Several prominent individual investors have participated in Cigent's funding:

• Avie Tevanian, formerly Apple Inc.'s Chief Software Technology Officer
• Tom Paquin, Co-Founder of Netscape and Mozilla
• Brendan O'Halloran, former Vice-Chair at TD Securities
• William Cyr, Chief Executive Officer at NASDAQ-listed Freshpet
• Alan Pollard, President - Product and Innovation at The Vitality Group
• Francois Millard, Senior Vice President/Chief Actuarial Officer at The Vitality Group
• Dr. Tony Martin, President and Founder of Strategic Solutions Unlimited
• Gary Wipfler, Treasurer, Apple Inc.

CyberJunction's Thomas DiBenedetto, and Brendan O'Halloran have also joined the Cigent board of directors. DiBenedetto, who leads CyberJunction, is also Chairman of Jefferson Waterman International, a Washington D.C.-based international consulting firm and a partner in the Fenway Sports Group LLC (FSG), the parent company of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club.

A unique fusion of world-leading data recovery, cyberthreat, and storage experts originally architected Cigent Data Defense to protect sensitive data inside select U.S. government agencies.  Cigent's founders handled sensitive work on behalf of key U.S. government agencies on advanced data destruction and recovery projects. They successfully retrieved data from severely damaged and encrypted media critical to assisting national security and highly publicized law enforcement actions. In the wake of the Edward Snowden insider theft of classified information, which easily bypassed software-only security layers, the U.S government-funded Cigent team explored the concept of self-defending storage to combat data theft from any vector. The multi-year research and development effort resulted in the world's first storage devices with active and embedded Machine Learning-based ransomware detection and advanced proprietary firmware-based cybersecurity protections. This approach to data security proved so effective that Cigent received additional backing from public and private sources to broadly patent its technology and develop commercially available products in the interest of national security. The result is the Cigent Data Defense family of products introduced today.

"We've received support well beyond capital from our investment group,"said Bradley Rowe, CEO of Cigent."Several of our investors are directly responsible for commercial engagements the Company now has in place. In addition to the publicly disclosed investment, the Company enjoys significant sources of non-dilutive capital from governmental partners."

About In-Q-Tel
In-Q-Tel is the nonprofit strategic investor serving as a trusted partner to government intelligence and national security agencies by sourcing, funding, and accelerating innovative technologies from the commercial startup community to strengthen the security of the U.S. and its allies.

About WestWave Capital
WestWave Capital is an early-stage, deep-technology, enterprise-only venture fund that invests primarily in Seed and Series A stage companies. WestWave Capital's focus areas include the next generation of SaaS, Analytics, IoT, Security and Cloud Infrastructure companies.

About CyberJunction
CyberJunction's principals have more than 30 years of experience nurturing technology companies in numerous markets including predictive modeling, data analysis, cellular communications, artificial intelligence, voice recognition and video.

About Cigent
Cigent is an In-Q-Tel-backed cybersecurity company founded by data recovery, storage, and cyber threat experts that protect businesses and individuals against any threat vector, even after a security breach. Cigent Data Defense solves more than three decades of failure by the cybersecurity industry to prevent ransomware, data theft, and insider theft by placing protection as close to the data as possible - inside the firmware of storage devices - and adds Zero Trust multi-factor authentication that protects data at the endpoint, on the network, in the cloud, or when shared with trusted users. Cigent Data Defense is comprised of  Cigent's D³E^® (Dynamic Data Defense Engine™) Windows^®-based software and Cigent's self-defending Secure Solid-State Drives (SSDs). For more information, please visit https://www.cigent.com/. 

Cigent, Secure SSD, D³E, and Dynamic Data Defense Engine are registered trademarks of Cigent Technology, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. The Cigent products mentioned in this release may be covered by one or more patents, including at least U.S. Patent Nos. 10437983, 10521611, 10282117, and 10095431 with additional patents pending in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Israel, and other jurisdictions.

Editorial Contact:
Adam Benson
VRGE Strategies
202.999.9104
[email protected]

SOURCE Cigent Technology