Kirkland-based cybersecurity company Chainguard Inc. has raised a $50 million Series A round less than a year after its founding in October.
Chainguard co-founder and CEO Dan Lorenc said the company has about 40 employees, roughly 15 of which are based in the Seattle area. He added that the company doesn't have specific hiring targets for the next year.
"The last couple years it was much faster fundraising cycles and growth," Lorenc said. "It's definitely slowing back down ... so I'm trying to stretch out the runway to make sure we make it out to the other side."
Despite calling Kirkland its headquarters, Chainguard is fully remote and doesn't have offices. Lorenc, who is based in Austin, Texas, said the company doesn't plan to add office space despite the $50 million infusion. Chainguard recently had an all-staff meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, Lorenc added, and the company is planning another one for October.
Chainguard makes technology to help clients produce software securely. Lorenc said Chainguard tracks how code gets used and how it is built throughout the pipeline. The company counts Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Orijtech, a Palo Alto-based cloud company, as clients. Lorenc said the money will help Chainguard grow its engineering team, as the space is becoming increasingly crowded.
Sequoia Capital led the round, while Amplify, Mantis VC, LiveOak Venture Partners, Banana Capital, K5/JPMC and others participated. Sequoia has invested in many household names, including Apple, Instagram and Airbnb. Mantis VC, meanwhile, is backed by the famous music duo the Chainsmokers.
"High-profile software supply chain attacks like Log4j have flashed a spotlight on the need to establish a foundation of trust in the software that companies put in production," Bogomil Balkansky, partner at Sequoia Capital, said in a news release. "The Chainguard team are the thought leaders in this space, and it is the right team at the right time in history to tackle this problem."
