A Minnetonka-based cybersecurity startup raised just over $4 million in a Series A funding round, led by Rally Ventures.
Ostra Cybersecurity provides multilayered cybersecurity for small to mid-sized businesses and was founded by Michael Kennedy in 2018. Overall, the company has raised a little under $10 million.
The company plans to use the latest funding for marketing, account management, enhancing its product and helping small businesses to build a better practice around their cybersecurity protocols.
The company has grown the size of its workforce to 25 employees and expanded into office space in Minnetonka.
Kennedy, who said the company services about 300 customers, started the business after one of his friend's business was attacked by ransomware. Kennedy had just built out cybersecurity for a Fortune 500 company based in Minnesota and thought about ways to give smaller businesses access to the same tools larger companies had.
"I knew there was a better way to build these enterprise tools that the small to mid-market space didn't have access to," Kennedy said. "That, coupled with a few other things, is what drove us to start Ostra and be a differentiator in cybersecurity. Our big differentiation is that we embed ourselves in with a business and become their security team. We don't just look for events and help protect, but actively work with customers and partners with remediating cybersecurity events that happen and are more on the prevention side than the reaction side."
This month, the company named a new CEO, Andrew Tewksbury. Before joining Ostra, Tewksbury held executive roles at Fortra and Starkey Hearing Technologies. He has a bachelor's in business administration from the University of St. Thomas and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas' Opus School of Management.
Tewksbury said the vision and mission of Ostra Cybersecurity was important to him, especially supporting small businesses, and one reason why he wanted to join the company.
"Those small businesses are really the backbone to our local market, which is really important to me and giving access to tools used by the largest organizations in the world to small businesses so they can get back to what they want to do, servicing their customers and building their business," Tewksbury said.
Over the next year, the company wants to network in the small-business community, service larger businesses as the demand increases, educate small businesses on cybersecurity and how to respond, and expand the company's footprint.
