In the same week that Recorded Future explained away accusations that it was scanning private Facebook chat activity, the Somerville analytics company announced that it has raised $12 million in new funding.
Founded in 2009, Recorded Future has now raised about $32 million in funding to date.
The company crawls more than 650,000 publicly available Web sources and analyzes the information to identify possible cyber threats for its customers. Recorded Future says it offers real-time threat intelligence that is tailored to each organization—something that appears to be in high demand in this cybersecurity climate. Four of the world’s five largest companies are customers, according to Recorded Future, though specific names aren’t being disclosed. Key customer sectors include financial, technology, cybersecurity and government.
As part of its efforts, Recorded Future has been heavily involved in investigating pro-ISIS online activity, for instance, and has regularly blogged on the subject (the screengrab above is from one such blog).
The new funding round, the company’s Series D, was led by Reed Elsevier Ventures. Also taking part was MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, along with existing investors Google Ventures, CIA-funded In-Q-Tel, Atlas Venture, IA Ventures and Balderton Capital.
“Turning data from the Web into intelligence is an amazing idea but hard to do really well. Recorded Future has created and executed on this vision superbly,” said Kevin Brown of Reed Elsevier Ventures, who is joining the Recorded Future board.
Recorded Future has a staff of about 50. The company’s valuation in connection with the new funding round and its revenue for 2014 were not disclosed.
Screengrab from recordedfuture.com/opantiisis-cyber-vigilantes/, used with permission from Recorded Future.
