Blockchain security firm Halborn raises $90 million for Guard Crypto

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Miami-based Halborn plans to use the Series A proceeds to strengthen protections for cryptocurrency lending protocols and better defend the money flowing in and out of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, says CISO Paul Vijender. The round was led by global growth investor Summit Partners (see: A $10 million “Bounty” for an $80 million DeFi attack).

“Our firm started with a vision to bring in a set of security services that are really lacking in the crypto space and make crypto happen with security at the forefront,” says Vijender. “We now see an opportunity to productize many of our existing services.”

Halborn has expertise in traditional security domains such as risk assessment, cloud security assessments, DevSecOps, security awareness training and social engineering. Vijender says the company has worked to ensure these features can be easily consumed by the crypto industry. The funding will allow Halborn to hire aggressively and double its 100 employees over the next year.

Riding on the guardrail

The company competes with the likes of OpenZeppelin and Trail of Bits in the blockchain security field. Halborn says it’s different, given his deep background that spans traditional security disciplines like risk assessments, cloud security, security awareness training and red, purple and blue teams.

Halborn plans to use the money to add more railings around the entry and exit points of the crypto platform, to ensure that money flows out only to people who are authorized to withdraw it, says Vijender. Halborn will focus much of its energy on entry and exit in the months ahead, according to Vijender.

“The whole idea of ​​risk is being redefined with a paradigm-shifting technology like blockchain, and it’s even more relevant in decentralized finance,” says Vijender.

Halborn is also looking to build more protection into cryptocurrency lending protocols by building in more security best practices all the way from the design phase to the core logic, he says. The lending protocols are open source, decentralized and community-based, which Vijender says introduces a whole new set of challenges around securing the software development process.

More revisions and pen tests

From a service perspective, Vijender says increased developer activity in the crypto space is driving the need for additional audits and pen tests to help personnel understand the absolute worst case for a particular protocol or project and ensure it is protected. Virtually all of Halborn’s employees have an adversarial security background, which helps them provide insight into how to best secure crypto protocols.

“Our goal when we do an audit or a pen test is to really break the system and see if we can understand the absolute worst case,” says Vijender.

Scaling up Halborn’s security consulting services will require significant hiring of personnel with deep security, product and engineering experience, according to Vijender. The new positions span Halborn’s entire business, from product and security to sales and marketing, says Vijender.

Halborn wants both to expand its relationship with significant global players in the industry, as well as to acquire more customers who develop interesting protocols and use crypto as a basic layer to solve big problems, says Vijender. The company works with some of the most ambitious customers on the planet to solve crypto and wants to add more support for developers throughout the lifecycle.

“Our fundraising should be an indicator that security continues to be a major area of ​​focus for the crypto industry,” says Vijender. “I think there are a lot of opportunities to solve security problems in the crypto industry, and we need all the help we can to really enable this paradigm-shifting technology and help it reach its potential. Security is going to be a big part of that.”