SaaS website security services provider StopTheHacker announced earlier this week that it received $1.1 million in initial funding from public and private investors including Runa Capital, a Russian early-stage venture capital firm, and Brian NeSmith, former CEO of Bluecoat.
StopTheHacker’s proprietary, patent-pending technology helps solve web-scale security problems involving malware on websites, hacker attacks and other types of online abuse. It uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, based on years of research at the University of California, Riverside, and originally funded by the US National Science Foundation.
“We invested in StopTheHacker because it represents the future of the security market,” said Andre Bliznyuk of Runa Capital, who joined the company’s board of directors. “StopTheHacker’s is a new type of protection for websites. It allows businesses to feel confident that their websites, online business and their customers are receiving constant, proactive protection, without the need to install additional software or hardware.”
Founded in mid-2010, Runa Capital initially focused on Russia. It invested in Metabar, a startup offering customizable toolbars, in Ecwid, a Russia-based producer of e-commerce widgets, in Nginx, an open source web server publisher, and in Travelmenu, a Russian-Ukrainian site offering a suite of travel products.
Runa has also funded residents of Skolkovo, the state-sponsored innovation hub currently under completion near Moscow.
In 2011, shifting to a more global strategy, Runa started to invest in such companies as US SaaS provider BigTime, and ThinkGrid, a UK headquartered global cloud company.
Update March 3, 2014
Runa sold its stake to CloudFare, reports Venture-News.ru
