Mobile apps cybersecurity startup Protectt.ai said on Monday it has raised around $8.7 million at an undisclosed valuation in a Series-A funding round led by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP).
The Mumbai-based company aims to use the funds to drive global expansion, undertake product innovation and nurture talent.
Protectt.ai’s clients include a mix of banks, stock exchanges and stock-related apps. “We found that mobile banking and UPI applications were the most targeted by malware and threat actors. We saw adoption and early traction from these sectors,” co-founder and chief executive Manish Mimani told Mint.
Founded in 2020, Protectt.ai uses artificial intelligence (AI) as part of its offerings to not just monitor cyber threats, but also to patch out vulnerabilities within apps remotely, without the need for an update. “We are working on a concept of predicting cyber threats based on user behaviour and device behaviour to figure out how they’ll impact mobile apps,” Mimani, who was earlier the chief information officer of Aviva Life Insurance, said.
Some of the startup’s clients include the BSE, Yes Bank, IIFL Securities, Equitas Small Finance Bank and Kinara Capital.
“Cybersecurity is a core area of focus for us. The digital revolution in India means that there are 900mn+ mobile phone users who depend on their smartphones for their livelihoods and financial needs. Keeping mobile phone led financial transactions secure has therefore become vital,” Vishal Gupta, partner and managing director at Bessemer Venture Partners told Mint.
Protectt.ai registered its first profitable year in FY24 and is on track to do the same in FY25, according to Mimani. The company’s annual recurring revenue currently stands at “almost $5 million” in FY25, with a focus on doubling that in the next financial year.
While Protectt.ai does have a consumer segment to its offerings, the company aims to focus on its B2B segment right now. “Over the next two years, we want to be purely focused on being a B2B cybersecurity organisation,” Mimani said.
Globally, BVP has made around 30 investments in the cybersecurity space. The firm believes that India’s cybersecurity ecosystem has matured enough to warrant launching a roadmap in the space, Mint previously reported. Bessemer Venture invests in companies based on ‘road maps,’ the firm’s investment thesis in a segment.
Currently, most mobile apps in the ecosystem are patched regularly to ensure that they stay secure. However, to do so, companies need to write out code, test it to ensure it doesn’t break the user experience before finally rolling out a patch or an update. The overall lifecycle of the system ranges between one and three months.
Global expansion
Global expansion was on the cards even prior to the fundraise, and the company has already expanded into the Middle East with an office in Dubai that is expected to go live by the end of March. In the US, Protectt.ai expects to be fully operational by the first week of April. “The Middle East market is currently a very vacant market. In the US, we have some competition, there are some companies working in mobile apps cybersecurity,” Mimani said. However, the company believes that it is an under-penetrated sector, giving it an opportunity to tap into the market.
As part of its product innovation efforts, the company is working on building out a platform for AI security. “We see organisations adopting AI, agentic platforms and large language models, but what about security,” Mimani said. Protectt.ai plans to build out this new platform in a similar fashion to its mobile app one. The company is targeting a release between August and September this year.
As part of its efforts to nurture cybersecurity talent in India, Protectt.ai partnered with IIT Madras where it runs Binary Clash 360, a hackathon for professionals, cyber security enthusiasts and students.
The company was bootstrapped by co-founders Mimani and Mohanraj Selvaraj and two other partners who cumulatively put in $1 million on their own. “We focused on building the right talent pool and on developing products, hence we were able to scale to this level before raising money,” Mimani said.