After Maryland expansion, Bandura Systems raises $4M Series A

After building a Columbia-based team this year, Bandura Systems is ready to make a sales and marketing push, said CEO Chris Fedde.
The company has fresh funding to do so. On Tuesday, the startup is announcing the close of a $4 million investment round.
The Series A was led by firms with well-known Maryland ties including Grotech Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures and the Maryland Venture Fund, as well as Missouri-based Cultivation Capital. It follows a $3.5 million seed round, which closed earlier this year.
Bandura Systems’ product is based on Threat Intelligence Gateway technology, which was initially developed in part with the U.S. Department of Defense. Sold as a server appliance with software developed by Bandura, the product is designed to pick up on millions of different threat indicators, and make use of the knowledge. “It’s able to ingest that intelligence and keep known threats from hitting your network,” he said. It can complement a firewall to expand its capacity, and help save on workload for employees.
The company has initially built a client base that’s approaching 100 customers by focusing on bringing threat intelligence to small and medium–sized firms, such as regional health organizations or banks, where threat intelligence companies haven’t typically targeted. The startup is also working on enabling higher speeds for the appliance to expand its reach, and will look to work with larger firms and data centers. “The product is ready to go. We need to drive sales and marketing,” Fedde said.
The former CEO of Belcamp-based SafeNet and Hanover-based Hexis Cyber Solutions, Fedde joined Bandura in February. The company based its executive team in Columbia, and has built a Columbia-based sales and marketing team of a dozen people, as Fedde has drawn on a network of Maryland cybersecurity specialists. Along with its St. Louis, Mo.–based dev team, the company has a total of 25 employees.
The new approach to security and early success gaining customers and company has also caught the eye of Maryland-based investors. Grotech was founded in Maryland in the 1980s and has a long history in the area. Gula Tech Adventures is run by Ron and Cyndi Gula, cofounders of recent NASDAQ entrant Tenable. Maryland Venture Fund is the state-backed VC firm.
While Bandura doesn’t plan immediate hiring this year, Fedde said the company will look to grow in Maryland with future expansion of the team.
“We’re getting that critical mass here in this region,” he said. “That’s why I count on resources and people that I’ve met and worked with over time that have worked here and know how to be successful here.”
Bandura Systems made our list of 10 up-and-coming startups in Columbia.
Read realLIST 2018: Columbia