Cybersecurity outfit SquareX raises US$6 million in seed capital from Sequoia
SQUAREX has raised US$6 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital South-east Asia, the cybersecurity software and solutions company announced on Wednesday (May 10).
The funds will be used for research and development, and to realise the company’s go-to-market strategy for its first product – a browser extension-based cybersecurity solution.
Squarex said Web browsers have become the primary way in which users interact with the Internet, and malicious actors have followed suit with techniques that prioritise these browsers.
Its solution is a browser extension that monitors users and ensures their security. Squarex said it integrates cloud services into its product – what it terms “cloud-powered temporary container sandboxes” so users can open links and files safely, while also guarding against phishing and identity theft.
It also claimed an advantage over older system-wide antivirus and anti-malware solutions, which “hinder productivity by blocking access to files and resources that may not actually be malicious”.
“SquareX is the first solution we have seen that takes a 100 per cent protection approach – where irrespective of how new and sophisticated the attack is, it has no chance to infect users,” said Anandamoy Roychowdhary, partner at Surge, Sequoia South-east Asia.
Squarex has not given a timeline for the rollout of its product, although the company said it “welcomed its first set of users” in early March. A beta version of the solution will be launched for “a limited set of users” in May, it added. SquareX was founded by Vivek Ramachandran, a cybersecurity specialist and researcher. He founded Pentester Academy – a platform for cybersecurity training – in 2011, which was subsequently acquired by networking software company INE in 2021.
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