Protexxa – one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the country – announced it had raised $10 million in Series A funding. The investors in the Series A round include Bell Ventures (the venture arm of Bell Canada) and Sandpiper Ventures. The round also saw support from existing shareholders, Export Development Canada, BKR Capital, The Firehood Angels, and Graphite Ventures. Additional investors include Global Risk Institute President and CEO Sonia Baxendale; Tricon and Cidel Co-founder Geoffrey Matus; former Home Depot Canada CEO and current NRStor CEO Annette Verschuren; and business lawyer and Distinguished Counsel in Residence at Toronto Metropolitan University Ralph Lean. Plus, Protexxa has welcomed a new advisor Dr. Donette Chin-Loy Chang.
Protexxa’s AI-powered platform gives companies and its people a cyber health score while helping them make improvements, like finding exposed passwords and removing online images. To help teams recover from cyber attacks faster, Protexxa also offers tailored incident response plans to support customers when cyber attacks occur.
The $10 million Series A funding round also marks another major milestone in Protexxa’s work towards providing global cyber defense through individual cyber hygiene.
Protexxa previously raised $5 million in seed funding in 2022 and this set a new record in Canada for the largest amount raised by a sole Black woman founder. Now with $15 million raised in total, McGowan is among the most successful VC-backed female founders in North America as a whole.
This new funding round will drive engineering and data science innovations on the platform, and grow its sales and marketing teams as it expands further into global markets. Looking to expand more into the US as its next major opportunity, the company is already seeing demand for its enterprise solution among financial, telecommunications, and healthcare institutions where security concerns are mounting.
KEY QUOTES:
“When it comes to cyber crime, most leaders think they’re outnumbered, underfunded, and ill-prepared. The fastest way to change that narrative is to activate their greatest strength: people. Protexxa prioritizes people through assessments and training that improve cyber hygiene and create more secure organizations.”
– Protexxa CEO Claudette McGowan
“People are overlooked when it comes to cybersecurity solutions – a blindspot that leaves companies exposed. Protexxa has proven the human-side of risk is where the world needs to focus.”
– The Firehood Co-founder Danielle Graham
