Singapore-based Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for decentralized finance (DeFi), has raised US$5.5 million in funding from a clutch of investors.
Backers include Blueprint Forest, Electric Capital, Framework Ventures, Bitscale Capital, P2P Capital, IDEO Colab, The Lao, BR Capital, 3rd Prime Ventures, and North Island Ventures, among others.
Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi/ Photo credit: Immunefi
Last year, hackers stole about US$120 million from DeFi protocols in 15 separate attacks. By the midpoint of this year, there had been at least 23 attacks, netting hackers more than US$1.7 billion in value.
The Immunefi team uses its expertise to ensure the safety of DeFi projects. It pays security researchers to review code and disclose vulnerabilities, allowing companies to secure their projects.
DeFi is unique because vulnerabilities in code could result in direct loss of a user’s money, according to Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi. “Bug bounty programs are open invitations to security researchers to find those vulnerabilities in exchange for a reward and have proved one of the most effective ways to deal with critical security holes,” he said.
See also: The stunning rise of India’s ethical hacking industry
The company claims to have paid over US$7.5 million in bounties to white-hat hackers so far.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Arpit Nayak
(And yes, we’re serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
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