empow takes Major Steps to Propel its Leadership of Next-Generation, ROI-Positive SIEM; Company Announces Series B Funding, and Peter George as CEO

BOSTON, April 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- empow, a Boston-based cybersecurity startup that quickly became a Gartner Cool Vendor company – driven by its mission to help enterprises "make more of what they already have" –  today announced two significant steps that will accelerate the adoption of the first SIEM solution that finally lives up to its name.   

empow provides the first orchestration platform that uses AI and machine learning analytics to classify threats and alerts based on intent – identifies the most actionable ones – and then uses the existing security infrastructure to respond. It is this ability that replaces conventional SIEM money pits with an ROI-positive platform.

Ascent Venture Partners – known as thesis-driven investors with an ability to spot the companies who are defining the future of security – will be participating as a new investor in empow's B-round of $10M, along with empow's initial investors.  

At the same time, Peter George, who has led multiple cybersecurity companies to great success – and partnered with Ascent on their due diligence into empow – is joining as CEO.  Peter recognized the company's game-changing prospects, and the company simultaneously recognized his ability to take the company to the next level; as a result, the leadership of empow was reconfigured to accommodate Peter's new role.

Current CEO and Founder Avi Chesla, will move to CTO, enabling him to focus on empow's SIEM technology platform, while helping Peter to evangelize the company's unique approach in the SIEM market. Chesla, who holds multiple patents – including the "mind-reading" patent that decodes attacker intent, is the visionary behind the concept of a SIEM that leverages an abstracted security layer – powered by AI and NLP.

empow will use the funds to extend its leadership in next-generation SIEM and expand its global sales, marketing and finance operations in Boston – enabling it to introduce the transformative impact of the empow solution to more customers.

"empow's approach to next generation SIEM has been fully validated," said Avi Chesla.  "We are gratified by the confidence of Ascent Venture Partners, and I am personally thrilled that Peter is joining as CEO.  His proven executive leadership skills, strong customer focus and passion for disruptive technologies will help us to take the company to the next level – the leading SIEM provider across the entire security ecosystem.  The fact that Peter chose empow after having analyzed dozens of cybersecurity companies says it all."

Peter George brings to empow a wealth of knowledge and experience; he served as President and CEO of Fidelis Security Systems, as well as President and CEO of Crossbeam Systems, and President of Enterprise Business at Nortel Networks.  His experience in cybersecurity, IT, SaaS, spans more than two decades of building companies that deliver sustained growth and profits.

"From the moment I met Avi I recognized empow as a transformative company," noted George. "Before empow it was sink not SIEM.  With empow, what was a morass of complex, expensive, non-communicative tools becomes a silo-busting, intent-based orchestration engine. empow is able to harvest capabilities from any existing security infrastructure – addressing each threat with the right investigations and responses.  I think of it as 'Autonomous SIEM' and I can't wait to bring this solution to all those companies faced with the urgent issue of overburdened Security Operations Centers."

"We couldn't be more excited about adding empow to our portfolio," said Luke Burns, General Partner of Ascent Venture Partners. "We have had an investment thesis around the SIEM/SOAR category for a while, and the combination of empow's industry-transforming technology, and Peter's leadership, was just what we were looking for. We know Peter from his successful run with a previous Ascent company, and are confident he will take empow to the next level, achieving broad enterprise adoption with companies who have the most at stake in a world of escalating threats."

For more information about empow, please visit https://www.empownetworks.com/.

About empow:
empow is the cybersecurity company that is turning SIEM from passive to active orchestration, with an ROI-positive platform that autonomously understands attacker intent – based on its patented "mind-reading" AI technology.  This intent insight applies to each unit of data that the network infrastructures generate, no matter the source, enabling empow's SIEM solution to determine if there is a real "attack story." If so, the platform's orchestration engine executes adaptive investigation and response actions that are optimally synched to each threat; even the most siloed organizations can create a proactive security ecosystem – all by using an existing security infrastructures.  With empow, burdened Security Operations Centers don't have invest in more tools, they simply add a layer of "security abstraction" that both simplifies and empowers. empow is headquartered in Israel with a North American marketing and sales office in Boston (Cambridge), has as customers medium and large enterprises and service providers in North America and Europe.

About Ascent Venture Partners:
Ascent Venture Partners is dedicated to investing in innovation for the enterprise. In backing more than 100 early-stage, emerging technology companies, Ascent has remained committed to its mission of partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs striving to build innovative market leaders. Ascent's investments have yielded powerful results generating more than $10 billion in enterprise value, which speaks to the firm's deep knowledge, experience, commitment, and networks. The Ascent investment team manages six venture funds with total commitments of more than $500 million, and is located in Boston, Mass.

SOURCE empow

Related Links

https://www.empownetworks.com