Business Briefing for 10.28.26. By the N2K CyberWire staff Investments and insights. $639M RAISED | 11 DEALS | 6 COUNTRIES * Upwind Security has raised $400 million in Series C funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. * Blackwall (formerly BotGuard) has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by AVP. * Infisical has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Elad Gil. * Mave has emerged from stealth with $34 million in Series A and seed funding. * iVerify has raised $17 million in funding from Sands Capital, Entropy Ventures, and others. * Modelyo has raised $17 million in funding led by OlivTree. * Ultra Security has emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding. * Indurex has raised €7 million (US$7.8 million) in funding led by Contrarian Ventures. * Northstar Security has emerged from Stealth with $7 million in seed funding led by Wing Venture Capital. * QuestorAI has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Paladin Capital Group. * Cygrid has emerged from stealth with €2.66 million (US$3 million) in pre-seed funding led by Atlantic. San Francisco-based cloud security firm Upwind Security has raised $400 million in Series C funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Greylock Partners, Cyberstarts, Craft, Salesforce Ventures, Alta Park, Picture Capital, Swish Ventures, Cerca Partners, TCV, Penny Jar, Leaders Fund, and Canapi Ventures. The company says the funding "will fuel our product and engineering growth in building the platform that will secure cloud & AI infrastructure for the world in the AI era." Estonian web traffic management and DDoS mitigation startup Blackwall (formerly BotGuard) has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by AVP, with participation from existing investors Dawn Capital, MMC Ventures, and Tera Ventures. The company says it "will use the investment to scale its global presence across the web traffic management market, establishing and expanding operations across 12 strategic regions spanning North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East." San Francisco-based agentic AI security startup Infisical has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Elad Gil, with participation from Gradient, Y Combinator, and others. The company says it "will use the new funding to accelerate product development, expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, and build out its security infrastructure for AI agents as enterprise adoption increases." Israeli SecOps platform Mave has emerged from stealth with $34 million in funding. The company's $28 million Series A was led by Red Dot Capital Partners with participation from Lumir Growth Partners, while its $6 million seed round was led by Dell Technologies Capital and Emerge Ventures. The company stated, "The funding will help us deepen our AI research, expand the platform's capabilities, and grow our global presence. We also plan to more than double our team, with hiring focused on AI research and go-to-market." Belfast-based mobile endpoint detection and response company iVerify has raised $17 million in funding from Sands Capital, Entropy Ventures, NAventures, National Bank of Canada's corporate venture arm, Morgan Stanley, and United Airlines Ventures. The company says the funds "are earmarked to help the company scale operations as it handles an influx of interest from businesses that are responding to the fallout from AI-enabled cyberattacks and looking for an enterprise-wide solution able to handle myriad new mobile threats they are facing." Israeli confidential cloud provider Modelyo has raised $17 million in funding led by OlivTree. According to CTech, "the funding will support research and development of the company's confidential cloud platform and expansion of its international commercial operations." Detroit-based agentic security platform Ultra Security has emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding from Ludlow Ventures, Hidden Capital, Entrée Capital, Detroit Venture Partners, firedrop, FDVC, and angel investors. Amsterdam-based ICS security company Indurex has raised €7 million (US$7.8 million) in funding led by Contrarian Ventures, with participation from Axeleo Capital and Curiosity. The company says the funding "will be used for R&D, and to build out Indurex's commercial capabilities, with Europe and the Middle East as priority markets ahead of expansion into the United States (US) and Asia-Pacific (APAC)." San Francisco-based security data context platform Northstar Security has emerged from Stealth with $7 million in seed funding led by Wing Venture Capital. The company says the funding "will accelerate product development, team expansion and go-to-market efforts." Seattle-based application security company QuestorAI has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Paladin Capital Group, with participation from Denver Ventures. The company says the "funding will be used to accelerate development of QuestorAI's AI-powered analysis and autonomous remediation platform, expand its work with enterprise design partners, and grow the team as the company moves toward broader availability." Berlin-based identity enforcement platform Cygrid has emerged from stealth with €2.66 million (US$3 million) in pre-seed funding led by Atlantic, with participation from d11z and angel investors. The company says the funding "is being used to expand the platform's enforcement capabilities, grow the team, and scale go-to-market across Europe and beyond." Mergers and acquisitions. 3 DEALS | 3 COUNTRIES * Tegria has acquired Massachusetts-based cybersecurity and cloud hosting provider CloudWave. * Forte Technologies has acquired Illinois-based MSSP Business Cyber Security Solutions. * Aikido Security has launched Noon, a workforce security business built on the acquisitions of Poland-based Cyberly and Belgium-based Outkept. Spokane, Washington-based healthcare services and solutions company Tegria has acquired Massachusetts-based cybersecurity and cloud hosting provider CloudWave. The company stated, "The acquisition expands Tegria's hosting and infrastructure capabilities while integrating CloudWave's security operations center (SOC) expertise into Tegria's managed services portfolio. Clients will benefit from expanded resources, broader technical capabilities, and accelerated innovation, while maintaining uninterrupted service from their trusted teams." Texas-based managed IT provider Forte Technologies has acquired Illinois-based MSSP Business Cyber Security Solutions, which now operates as Forte Cyber Assurance. The company stated, "With this acquisition, Forte, a portfolio company of Broadwing Capital, expands its cybersecurity and compliance capabilities, including a dedicated CMMC practice for the defense industrial base." Belgian developer security company Aikido Security has launched Noon, a workforce security business built on two acquisitions Aikido completed in September 2026: Poland-based Cyberly and Belgium-based Outkept. The company stated, "Together, Cyberly and Outkept bring established international customer relationships and a strong foundation for Noon's growth, with additional opportunities across Aikido's existing customer network." Executive moves. NCC Group has named Guy Ellis as CEO, succeeding Mike Maddison. Ellis previously served as the company's CFO, and the company has named Andy Beaver as Interim Chief Financial Officer to fill his role. Noma has appointed Bobby Shoker as Chief Financial Officer and Alberto Rodrigues as Chief Customer Officer. Shoker most recently served as CFO of Veza, while Rodrigues previously served as Chief Customer Officer at Oligo Security. Neo has appointed Scott Stout as Chief Revenue Officer. Stout previously served as Chief Revenue Officer of Cisco Security. Darktrace has named Issy Richards as Chief Product Officer and Stephen Pickman as Chief Technology Officer. Richards previously served as Darktrace's Interim Senior Vice President of Product, while Pickman most recently served as the company's Senior Vice President of Engineering. Cequence Security has hired Russ Schafer as Chief Marketing Officer. Schafer previously served as Executive Vice President of Marketing at Fortinet. General Intuition has appointed Michael Casper as Chief Information Security Officer. Casper previously served as CISO at OKX. Sonoco has named Frank DePaola as Vice President and CISO. DePaola previously served as Vice President, Chief Information Security & Privacy Officer at Enpro. KnowBe4 has hired Brendan Nesheim as VP of Digital and Commercial Customer Success. Selected Reading Marketplace. Anthropic's I.P.O. Prospectus Spells Out a Future of Promise and Peril (New York Times) The A.I. company took great pains to describe the many benefits that can come from using its Claude chatbot and technology, but also offered up a heavy dose of gloom. Anthropic's IPO plans: 900% revenue retention, but $80 billion in first-half losses (CNBC) All the details from Anthropic's IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Products, services, and solutions. Qlik Introduces Semantic Models for Shared Business Context Across Analytics and AI (GlobeNewswire) New capability brings governed definitions, expressions and relationships into reusable data products, helping teams reduce duplicate modeling and deliver more consistent results across analytics and AI TTP Briefing: Q3 2026 (LevelBlue) Explore the most effective TTPs used by threat actors in Q3 2026, based on frontline threat intelligence from global incident response investigations. Sectigo Research Finds 78% of IT and Security Leaders Expect PKI to Change Significantly to Support Post-Quantum Cryptography (BusinessWire) 2026 State of Crypto Agility Report reveals quantum-readiness and shorter certificate lifespans continue to put growing pressure on the same legacy trust infrastructure Cyware Launches Last Mile AI Agents To Act on Threat Intelligence (Cyware) Cyware launches Last Mile AI Agents to help enterprises and intel sharing networks prioritize threat intelligence, monitor vulnerabilities, and strengthen collective defense. AWS Continuum for code vulnerabilities is now generally available (Amazon Web Services) AWS Continuum for code vulnerabilities is a new security service that uses AI to automatically find, validate, and prioritize code vulnerabilities in your environment, then delivers ready-to-review fixes as pull requests replacing what previously took hours of manual investigation and days of cross-team coordination. The Real Jump Scare Isn't the Attacker; It's The Vulnerabilities You're Focusing On (Qualys) Teams are remediating more than ever, but exposure from the vulnerabilities that matter is still rising faster than they can keep up with. The State of Agentic AI Trust Report, Q3 2026 (Arkose Labs) Fewer than 3% of legitimate AI agent sessions carried a verified signature in Q3 2026. See where AI agents showed up and how to tell helpful from harmful. Fortinet Expands AI Security with the FortiGuard Inline AI Security Service (Fortinet) Today Fortinet announced the new FortiGuard Inline AI Security Service, delivering AI-specific inspection and guardrails to FortiGate customers through a cloud-delivered service. Free Chatbot Risk Check | Varselio (Varselio) Enter your website and get a free, quick passive risk snapshot of your chatbot or AI widget: security headers, privacy link and exposed API keys. Then get the full report and a free deep check. Xage and SailPoint Extend Identity Governance into Privileged Access (Xage) SailPoint governs who should have access. Xage controls and enforces what that identity can access and do. New FireMon Agentic AI Redefines Network Security Policy Management (BusinessWire) Built-in agents, customer-created workflows, and MCP connectivity fundamentally changes how network security operations teams get work done Bitdefender Launches GravityZone Exposure Management to Help Security Teams Proactively Reduce Critical Risks Before Attackers Exploit Them (Bitdefender) New Offering Uncovers Internal and External Vulnerabilities, Maps Attack Paths, and Hardens Against Tool Abuse and Excess Privileges for Resource-Constrained Security Teams Without Added Complexity DNSFilter Launches One Platform to Secure Every Connection, Every User and Every AI Tool (DNSFilter) DNSFilter launches LUMINATE by DNSFilter(TM) to secure every connection, user and AI tool from one agent, one console and one policy. Cato Networks Launches Cato AI Endpoint to Secure AI Use Beyond the Browser (Cato Networks) Cato AI Endpoint helps organizations safely scale AI use by extending visibility and control beyond browser-based AI to the endpoint. Sweet Security Research Identifies Go Implementation of Node2Shell Vulnerability, Expanding Attack Surface to Major HTTP Frameworks (GlobeNewswire) Sweet Security engineer discovers fix pushed to Go Brotli library, confirming vulnerability existed across language implementations; Traefik, Fiber, and Iris among affected frameworks Xage Security Named in 2026 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Privileged Access Management (GlobeNewswire) Gartner Recognized Xage for Its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision HITRUST Launches IRIDX, an Information Risk Ratings Company to Standardize Information Risk Measurement, Governance and Financial Exposure (HITRUST) HITRUST today announced IRIDX(TM), an information risk ratings company. IRIDX establishes and governs standardized methods for measuring residual information risk and estimating related financial exposure. IRIDX turns existing assurance and risk evidence into comparable, explainable measures that give enterprises, boards, underwriters and regulators a common basis for information risk decisions. Saviynt Achieves United States FedRAMP(R) Class D (High) Certification (GlobeNewswire) Saviynt delivers the most complete identity security FedRAMP Class D offering, bringing full capabilities for Identity Management (IGA), Privilege Access Management (PAM), and Application Access Governance (AAG) across humans, nonhumans and AI agents together within a single certification boundary Study Finds Hack The Box Cybersecurity Platform Delivered 330% Return on Investment (BusinessWire) Enterprises achieved payback in less than six months, strengthened cyber workforce readiness, improved security operations and reduced breach risk Cloud Security Alliance Launches STAR for AI Level 2 to Strengthen AI Governance and Trust (CSA) STAR for AI Level 2 allows organizations to extend existing industry certifications and assurance frameworks into the AI domain ESET strengthens consumer and SOHO security with new AI protection (ESET) ESET introduces AI Conversation Security, AI Agent Security, behavioral monitoring, anti-scam tools, Browser Screen Protection, and enhanced mobile and web security. OPSWAT-Sponsored Report: AI is Exposing a File Security Gap Most Organizations Don't Know They Have (BusinessWire) 73.6% of security leaders believe their file defenses are mature, but evidence-based scoring finds zero organizations reach top-tier readiness 2027 Ransomware Report - Press Release (Proofpoint Total Protection) Proofpoint releases its 2027 Ransomware Report, revealing that organizations are better prepared for ransomware attacks but still lack confidence in their protection. N-able Launches AI-Accelerated Vulnerability and Patch Management (N-Able) Automated workflows reduce vulnerability exposure for over 340 third-party applications from days to minutes Arctic Wolf 2026 Agentic Security Operations Report Reveals AI Now Resolves the Majority of Security Investigations in Its Agentic SOC (Arctic Wolf) Findings show how agentic AI with human oversight is accelerating threat response, reducing alert fatigue, and reshaping security operations at global scale EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - October 27, 2026 - Arctic Wolf(R), the cybersecurity and AI company, today released its 2026 Agentic Security Operations Report, revealing that agentic AI now resolves 60% of security investigations... 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But does economic strength translate to stronger cybersecurity?To find out, we measured the national cybersecurity capability and institutional preparedness of the world's 50 biggest economies. QuSecure Wins Top InfoSec Innovator Award as the Most Innovative Quantum Cybersecurity Company of the Year (BusinessWire) Panel of Expert Judges Recognizes QuSecure's Crypto-agile Control Plane that Finds and Fixes Vulnerable Cryptography with No Rip and Replace Health-ISAC Health Sector Heartbeat - 2026 Q3 (Health-ISAC - Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center) Ransomware, cybercrime trends, and malicious actor forum postings that could potentially impact health sector organizations. Health-ISAC's 2026 Third Qlik Brings Governed Business Context and Analytics Workflows to Claude (GlobeNewswire) Qlik's MCP Server is now available through Anthropic's Claude Directory, giving Claude users a simpler way to connect governed Qlik(R) data, analytical logic, and selected analytics and data workflows, so they can work with trusted business context instead of raw data alone. Introducing the SpaceX Super Intelligence Partner Network (xAI) Our official program for companies building products, solutions, and services with Grok for our joint prospects and customers. 1Password for Agents Launches as the Trust Layer for Personal AI Agents (1Password) 1Password announced 1Password for Agents, a new platform that helps personal AI agents safely use the passwords, secrets, and credentials they need to complete approved tasks without seeing or storing them. Keeper Security Launches AI-Powered Phishing Protection To Warn Users Before Entering Credentials on Fake Sites (Cision PR Newswire) /PRNewswire/ - Keeper Security, the leading zero-trust and zero-knowledge identity security platform, today announces Phishing Protection, a new feature in... ActiveState Partners With Docker to Secure the Open Source in Enterprise Containers (Cision PR Newswire) /PRNewswire/ - ActiveState today announced a reselling partnership with Docker, Inc., the trusted platform for building software in the agentic era. The... Q3 2026 Threat Review (UltraViolet Cyber) Read the UltraViolet Cyber Q3 2026 Threat Review: agentic ransomware, state-linked campaigns, and deepfake fraud, with MITRE mapping and response steps. 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iVerify raises $17M to expand mobile endpoint security. A phone admitted to the corporate network can still give a security team very little to investigate. iVerify is building its mobile-security business around the work between granting access and understanding whether that access remains safe. The New York and Belfast company announced $17M in new funding on October 20, 2026, led by Sands Capital and Entropy Ventures. NAventures, National Bank of Canada's corporate venture arm, Morgan Stanley and United Airlines Ventures also participated. iVerify says the capital will help it scale operations as enterprise demand grows. For buyers, the proposition combines mobile endpoint detection and response, or EDR, with the practical decisions that follow a finding. Someone has to investigate the phone, decide whether its access should change and explain the collection boundary to the person carrying it. Bringing that work into an enterprise creates a deployment assignment as demanding as the detection pitch. What iVerify's $17M funding supports. The announcement gives the company more operating capital and adds institutional oversight. Sands Capital partner Chris Eng joins iVerify's board, while Morgan Stanley Global CISO Alonzo Ellis becomes a board observer. The company did not identify a round series or disclose a valuation, and its stated use of funds centers on scaling operations rather than a detailed spending allocation. The financing history needs its own dates. iVerify announced a $4M seed round in August 2023, when it emerged from incubation at Trail of Bits, followed by a $12M Series A in June 2024. Those earlier announcements provide context for the business's development; the latest release leaves current lifetime funding unspecified. Banking and aviation investment makes the institutional audience unusually visible in this round. It puts organizations associated with sensitive communications and complex operations into the capital story, without establishing that each investor has bought or deployed the product. A funding relationship and an operating contract carry different information, and the announcement establishes the former. Mobile detection has to reach an access decision. iVerify Enterprise is the company's mobile EDR platform for iOS and Android. iVerify describes a system using operating-system telemetry and behavioral detection to surface threats, with alerts feeding security operations and forensic work supporting investigations. Those are vendor-described capabilities, rather than an independent comparative test of detection performance. The company's integration documentation makes the operating connection concrete. Microsoft Intune integration brings mobile threat signals into compliance and Conditional Access workflows, while Cloudflare Zero Trust integration supplies mobile context for access decisions. Existing device management can remain part of deployment. A security buyer can therefore evaluate how detection fits the tools and responsibilities already in place. That connection matters because a warning has a human destination. An analyst needs to understand the signal, a responder needs a permitted action and an employee may need help restoring access. A procurement conversation limited to what the detector can find would leave the customer to design the rest of that chain after installation. For iVerify, enterprise expansion consequently involves more than distributing an application. The product has to remain useful as a finding travels from a phone into the customer's security operation. The quality of that handoff belongs in a buyer's assessment alongside coverage, deployment requirements and the effort needed to investigate an alert. The employee's phone puts privacy inside procurement. Personal phones make the security assignment particularly intimate. Work credentials and communications can sit beside a person's private life, so collecting evidence requires a boundary that both an employer and a device owner can understand. iVerify's Privacy Hub says advanced forensic features require explicit consent and enterprise customers can configure retention periods. Those provisions give a buyer specific matters to examine before a rollout: which collection mode is enabled, who authorizes an investigation, who can view the resulting evidence and how long it remains available. Privacy language is most useful when the person approving the purchase can connect it to the actual feature being deployed. A broad promise on a marketing page leaves too much work for the employee receiving the installation request. The people behind that product carry a specialist history. Danny Rogers, Rocky Cole and Matthias Frielingsdorf are co-founders, serving as CEO, COO and VP of R&D, respectively; Kris Jones is CTO. The technology began inside Trail of Bits before iVerify became an independent company in 2023. That origin places mobile investigation and enterprise adoption inside the same company's development. The funding supports a business that has to satisfy those constituencies together. Buyers need useful evidence, responders need workable permissions and employees need a clear account of what the software is doing. Each enterprise deployment turns those requirements into choices about configuration, policy and responsibility. What enterprise buyers can learn from this round. iVerify's financing fits a wider security purchasing problem: organizations need to observe activity at the places where work actually happens. DevCuration's coverage of Pluto Security's AI workspace funding follows a different surface of that problem. Mobile EDR brings the discussion to devices employees carry outside the office and use across personal and professional settings. The capital announcement supplies a clear amount, named institutions and a stated operating purpose. It leaves revenue, customer economics and detailed expansion milestones outside the public record. Operators can still use the product's documented integration and consent choices to ask more useful questions about a potential deployment, without treating investment as a performance benchmark. As iVerify scales, its sales and engineering conversations meet inside the customer's access policy. The analyst investigating a phone and the employee trying to get back to work both depend on that policy being clear enough to act on. The new capital gives iVerify more resources to carry its specialist detection work into that everyday enterprise relationship. DevCuration Data Cybersecurity funding, last 30 days. DevCuration's funding database tracked 13 Cybersecurity rounds totaling $7.7B in disclosed capital over the past 30 days. Recent deals DevCuration covered: