Deep Instinct
What they do: Apply “deep learning” to cyber-security for zero-day protection.
Problem they solve: Zero-day attacks are getting harder and harder to fend off. Malware toolkits are readily available on the dark web, and often all it takes to fool today’s security tools is a very minor change to existing malware.
How they solve it: Deep Instinct takes concepts from machine learning, more specifically deep learning, and applies them to cyber-security. Deep learning, or deep structured learning, is a technique that mimics the way our brains learn to recognize objects.
“When you see a picture of a dog, you identify it immediately, in real-time and with full confidence, even if a percentage of the pixels is modified. Nearly all of new malware is based on small mutations of known malware, which can be identified by cyber-security solutions, whereas the mutated malware cannot,” noted a Deep Instinct spokesperson.
Two-time Big50 winner @DeepInstinctSec secures $32 million for deep-learning-based cybersecurity http://wp.me/p330ZZ-h6 #Big50 Click To TweetHeadquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
CEO: Guy Caspi. Caspi previously served in the Israel Defense Forces and was President and GM of a division at Comverse/Verint Group.
Year Founded: 2014
Funding: In July 2017, Deep Instinct secured $32 million in Series B funding. The round was led by CNTP, and joined by NVIDIA, Coatue Management, and undisclosed existing investors.
Competitors include: AV incumbents, such as Symantec and Kaspersky, as well as a range of startups, including machine learning security startups like Darktrace.
Why they’re in the Big 50-2017: Deep Instinct is a two-time Big50 winner! Last year, the startup did well in online voting for the security and storage group. This year, the big Series B round really helped their cause. I also like their concept of applying deep learning to zero-day threats. With high-profile breaches and hacks making the news pretty much every day, forward-looking concepts like deep-learning-based zero-day protection should gain traction.
