Hanover, Md.–based cybersecurity company Dragos raises $37M Series B

Dragos, a Hanover, Md.–based cybersecurity company focusing on industrial control systems, closed on $37 million in Series B funding, the company said Wednesday. The news was first reported by Fortune.
The funding round was led by venture capital firm Canaan Partners, with participation from existing investors and industry backers including Emerson, National Grid Partners and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), according to the company.

Our exceptional team of industrial security practitioners helps defend the world’s critical infrastructure through global collaboration and our intelligence-driven #ICS #cybersecurity platform. Read more about our $37M Series B: https://t.co/0C5BdBPuNE pic.twitter.com/vEoCC2yA2R

— Dragos, Inc. (@DragosInc) November 14, 2018

Founded by Robert M. Lee, Jon Lavender and Justin Cavinee, Dragos makes a platform to secure infrastructure that’s crucial for society like electricity, drinking water and transportation, as well as industrial systems. The cofounders met in the intelligence community, and hired a team that applied the expertise to create the platform, which detects and responds to threats. The startup has also been involved in identifying new kinds of malware threats, including one that shut down a power grid in Ukraine.
“Critical asset threats are on the rise, so an industrial specific cybersecurity strategy is increasingly important to companies,” Andre Turenne, Director at National Grid Partners, said in a statement. “…Dragos has the expertise and technology to know that there is a specific threat occurring and informs what the attack is and what to do about it.”
Dragos initially worked with Fulton-based startup studio DataTribe, which joined as an early investor along with AllegisCyber. The startup was among those that the leaders of those firms pointed to when referring to the talent in Maryland that can help fuel a cybersecurity hub in Baltimore’s Port Covington.
The Series B round comes about 15 months after the company closed a $10 million Series A round. At the time, the company reported having a team of about 25 people. It’s since grown to more than 90 people, and is hiring across the company, according to a tweet from CEO Robert M. Lee.
Along with hiring, the company plans to use the funding for international expansion.