Vicarius is a SaaS company that helps security and IT teams protect their most critical apps and assets against software exploitation through vRx, a consolidated end-to-end vulnerability remediation platform. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Vicarius co-founder and CEO Michael Assraf to learn more about the company.
Michael Assraf’s Background
Assraf is a developer by trade, so he started in the engineering field, building various systems. Assraf said:
“I led a few companies as vice president of research and development, and that is where I discovered my passion for creating new technologies.”
Formation of Vicarius
How did the idea for the company come together? Assraf shared:
“Well I think it’s like a lot of things. You encounter the same problems over and over again and you start to ask yourself why it’s that way. So you become frustrated with the status quo so much that you are insane enough to start your own company to try and solve it.”
“My two co-founders Roi and Yossi worked together at CyberArk and while there they noticed how security and IT teams were buried in reports, manually fixing CVEs, checking bulletins, etc. They were shocked to see these people still using techniques from the early 2000s and that served as the impetus to fix it.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Assraf explained:
“Our core product is vRx, a consolidated AI-driven vulnerability remediation tool that helps security teams protect their assets against exploitation. Features include AI-generated detection and remediation scripts, in-the-wild attack data, and a proprietary technology that protects a software’s memory.
“Other products include: vsociety, a social community for CVE research; vconnect, a partner dashboard to manage leads; and vstore, an online shop dedicated to hacking merch and hardware.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Assraf faced in building the company?
“Raising capital in this market has been extraordinarily difficult with high interest rates and pessimistic attitudes amongst investors. Luckily, I have an amazing team behind me that lets our work do all the talking.”
Evolution of Vicarius’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Assraf noted:
“We knew right out of the gate that the core of our technology was very solid and new to the market. So in that sense because of this strong foundation, we’ve been able to adapt very quickly as new technologies emerge. For instance, since the rise of LLMs last year into widespread adoption, we quickly were able to integrate that into our product and provide a new AI copilot for our customers.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Assraf cited:
“3x YoY growth in ARR since 2021, over 400 customers, 60+ employees and growing, and just closed a $30M Series B round.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Assraf about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Denholm Energy is a great success story. This was a classic case of a manual and disjointed process that we helped transform. I think it’s best to hear what Callum McGuigan, IT Support Engineer, had to say: “vRx’s impact was tangible in terms of remediating our vulnerabilities and closing our exposure windows. The number of vulnerable apps significantly decreased as the platform automatically patched them, including new threats, without manual intervention.”
Funding
After asking Assraf about funding information, he revealed:
“Yes, we raised a seed round as well as a $24 million Series A round.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Assraf assessed that the total addressable market is $18 billion.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Assraf affirmed:
“There is no product currently in the market that provides an end-to-end solution to find and fix vulnerabilities except for ours. The issue plaguing most IT and security departments today is the disjointed tools and lack of information shared between them. We’re also building a robust online community to share information, help aspiring researchers learn new skills, and contribute to the broader infosec community. No other company is creating this type of ecosystem.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Assraf concluded:
“We are looking at doing 5x YoY growth this year with new hires and expansion into APAC as well as hitting a 1,000 customer milestone. Our ultimate goal is to be a $1 billion company.”
