Entrée Capital founded the SigmaLabs Accelerator three years ago in Israel, with the goal of assisting the best local founders drive their pre-seed startups forward in a meaningful way.
Early in 2017, out of the hundred plus candidates that applied for Wave #4, in walk two guys which start telling us about “Serverless” and that they have identified serious security issues which must be addressed asap! — And they have the solution.
Avi and Shaked were great guys, with relevant cyber experience. Yet we were unsure if the market is going to happen, so we started calling various CISO’s at corporations, investors and cyber experts to understand what they think. Responses were all over the place, some believed & some didn’t. When experts do not agree, and we cannot identify a clear trend, we are usually even more interested.
We decided to take the bet on the team with a view they are correct in anticipating the market. During the accelerator program, our team (headed by Tair Kowalsky) assisted the founders by helping them close their first design partner, preparing materials, nailing down the pitch and prioritize their next milestones.
We intro’d the team to some early stage cyber investors and firms, advising management on best practices & facilitating the process. Soon there was a shortlist of a few good investors. Of course, Entrée Capital was in the funding round and we’d like to think that this helped generate interest too.
End result, PureSec closed their Seed financing with TLV Partners & Entrée Capital, raising $3m to be able to build out a team, and buy time to educate early adopters.
Fast forward 4 months later…. Serverless is definitely happening (Don’t trust my word for it, ask Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft).
Today, we are extremely glad that PureSec has announced raising a $7m series A led by SquarePeg with continued participation by Entrée Capital and TLV Partners.
Sometimes, gut feel, a trust in competent founders and being involved pre-trend works out. We are only starting the PureSec journey, and we believe this will be a winner!
Go Puresec!
