Virginia’s RunSafe Security nabs two investments amounting to $3.5M in Series A funding

McLean, Virginia-based RunSafe Security, a company that makes a platform to protect embedded systems and devices from cyberattacks, has raised an additional $3.5 million in Series A funding from Lockheed Martin Ventures and NextGen Venture Partners.

This latest investment comes after RunSafe initially closed its $6.3 million Series A round back in December, bringing the total Series A raise to $9.8 million.

RunSafe founder and CEO Joe Saunders said this investment will help RunSafe scale its tech and customer base.

“We are focused on expanding our customer base to immunize software across supply chains, software publishers, enterprise IT systems, and [Department of Defense] weapons programs,” Saunders told Technical.ly. “We are also integrating into the DevSecOps ecosystem to help secure software without slowing down developers.”

RunSafe created a patented platform, Alkemist, that’s a software security product that can integrate with security systems to reduce the risk of cybersecurity attacks.

The company operates an office with seven full-timers in Huntsville, Alabama, and 16 team members work from its HQ in McLean.

“We are hiring a diverse set of people who can broaden how we execute boldly against our strategy. We have already hired two additional sales professionals, a senior marketing professional, a product leader and have extended offers to new engineers who will be starting after graduating from college this spring,” Saunders said. “We will continue to hire as our company grows.”

Baltimore-based NextGen Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that makes investments ranging from $1 million to $10 million into growing companies. The venture firm has also made investments in Dupont Circle-based UrbanStems, Farragut North-based edtech company Interfolio and Arlington, Virginia-based Vemo Education.

Launched in 2016, Lockheed Martin Ventures was created to invest in small companies that are developing tech that could help advance the businesses Lockheed Martin works with. This investment is the second one announced this week for the Bethesda, Maryland-based investment arm of the defense tech giant: Early this week, Lockheed Martin Ventures invested an undisclosed amount into Silicon Valley’s Ayar Labs.

“Our investment in RunSafe underscores our focus on mitigating evolving cyber threats that the defense industry faces,” said Chris Moran, VP and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, in a statement. “We look forward to working with RunSafe to assist in our effort to protect mission-critical systems our customers rely on.”