These Palantir and Grab alumni chose Singapore for their cyber security startup

Photo credit: Frida Bredesen / Unsplash.

There’s nothing like a good burglary to get you wise about cameras and alarm systems in your house. The same applies to cyber security – the past two years have seen a bunch of well-publicized online attacks that have made a lot of people a lot more interested in the concept.

But while large organizations mostly have the resources to get themselves the electronic equivalent of sturdy steel bars and ferocious guard dogs, smaller companies usually can’t afford such measures or don’t have the people required to set them up.

Horangi hopes to be the cyber security provider for ‘the little guy.’

That’s where Singapore-based Horangi comes in. The young startup makes cyber security tools aimed at small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to secure their online presence but can’t afford to install expensive software on the premises.

The startup just announced it’s raised series A funding to the tune of US$3.1 million. The round is led by Singapore-based venture capital firm Monk’s Hill and joined by Right Click Capital, 500 Startups, Hub Ventures Fund, 6Degrees Ventures, and private investors. It had previously raised a smaller, undisclosed amount.

“We target the SME space because we feel it’s underserved,” Paul Hadjy, co-founder and CEO of Horangi, tells Tech in Asia. The startup offers a software-as-a-service suite of products but also connects its clients to teams of cyber security experts they couldn’t afford otherwise.

Horangi, which means “tiger” in Korean, was founded in 2016 and launched its software platform in early 2017.

All-seeing eyes

Hadjy set up the company together with co-founder and CTO Lee Sult. But the two go back further, having been part of storied big data analytics company Palantir. They took on government and commercial projects involving information security at the US firm. The work brought them to South Korea, where they got involved in an initiative by the Korean Information Technology and Research Institute.

The Best of the Best initiative’s purpose was to source the country’s top computer science minds out of 1,000 student applicants. Sult and Hadjy were helping out breaking down all the applications coming in. A software solution they developed proved to be useful for students, which led to the duo deciding to start a company of their own.

By that time, Hadjy was working for Grab in Singapore on the ride-hailer’s information security team. The prospect of his own startup proved irresistible, though. “I really liked working [at Grab] but I had this opportunity and had to make a choice,” he says.

See: MAS appoints first-ever chief cyber security officer

Detect and protect

Horangi’s products revolve around three core tenets of cyber security; protection, detection, and response. “Every cyber security tool you can find either overlaps with some of those sectors or focuses on one of them,” Hadjy explains.

The startup’s products currently include:

Filling the gaps