PALO ALTO — Mimic, the ransomware defense company, has emerged from stealth and has secured a seed round of funding of $27 million led by Ballistic Ventures, with investment from Menlo Ventures, Team8, Wing Venture Capital and Shield Capital.
Mimic also announced today that Ted Schlein, General Partner at Ballistic Ventures and long-time partner at Kleiner Perkins, has joined its Board of Directors. “Ransomware is the highest priority problem for all CISOs in the Fortune 500 and Global 2000,” said Schlein. “We believe that Mimic’s unique approach to defending against these attacks will make it a required part of every company’s approach to security.”
“Mimic’s SaaS platform provides enterprises with detection, deflection, and rapid recovery from ransomware attacks,” said Derek Smith, Mimic CEO. “Our technology detects ransomware much earlier and with greater accuracy than other defenses, allowing us time to deflect the attack before damage is done or data is stolen. Mimic is the last line of defense, working in concert with our customers’ other controls. Our mission is to eradicate this pernicious form of cyber extortion, which impacts parts of our society that are least able to cope, such as hospitals and schools.”
“Mimic’s new capability to detect and deflect ransomware so much earlier than traditional defenses is a huge step forward,” said Kevin Mandia, founder of Mandiant and Co-founder and Strategic Partner of Ballistic Ventures. “The Mimic technology will allow incident responders the time they need to cut off threat actor access, knowing that their client is protected.”
Ransomware has become one of the most dangerous forms of cyber-attack worldwide. One of the first high-profile attacks occurred on May 7, 2021, when Colonial Pipeline, an oil pipeline system that carries gasoline and jet fuel from Houston through the Southeastern U.S. and to the New York Harbor suffered a ransomware attack which caused the entire pipeline to be shut down, crippling fuel supplies to the Eastern U.S. The CEO of Colonial Pipeline at the time, in his testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, stated, “We were in a harrowing situation and had to make difficult choices that no company ever wants to face… Our hope is that we will all learn from what happened and, through sharing, develop even more robust tools and intelligence to address this threat moving forward.”
