Blockchain security startup Hypernative bags $9 million to prevent crypto hacks
Hypernative, a crypto security startup focused on protecting against hacks, said today it raised $9 million in seed funding to help Web3 companies prevent losses from cyber attacks.
The seed round was led by Boldstart Ventures and IBI Tech Fund, with strategic investments from cryptocurrency firms Blockdaemon, Alchemy and Nexo, as well as CMT Digital and Borderless and a number of angel investors.
The company created a security platform that uses data both on and off blockchains to predict and prevent potential cyberattacks targeting financial, governance and societal threats in real time. The company calls its first product the “Pre-Cog” platform because of its ability to exploit signals before an attack occurs by using machine learning models to monitor incoming data.
According to the company, the platform has already detected over 764,000 risks and triggered over 33,000 alerts on over 14,000 monitored protocols. It uses its platform to allow customers to react in real-time to potential threats that could affect their crypto assets before or even while an attack may occur to mitigate any damage that may occur.
“We created Hypernative early last year when we saw massive amounts of money being stolen or phished or scammed in crypto,” Hypernative CEO Gal Sagie told Techcrunch. “We saw huge gaps between tools that existed and money that was invested, so we wanted to create something to prevent [attacks].”
According to a report by Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3, the crypto industry lost approximately $3.9 billion due to hacks, fraud and scams in 2022 with cyber attacks representing over 95% of the total. Although many of these attacks could have been prevented by proactively fixing vulnerabilities, it is not always possible to catch all bugs or errors in the wild.
This is where Hypernative’s Pre-Cog platform goes to warn, respond and prevent attacks before or while they happen. It allows security teams at crypto companies to receive alerts and act quickly by exporting the alerts to internal APIs, Slack, email or Telegram so engineers can know quickly.
The platform is designed for protocols to improve security beyond auditing and proactive defense, allowing teams to monitor key metrics and anomalies. For asset managers and traders, it also detects risks in portfolios in advance and in real-time by identifying potential risks before a transaction is initiated, meaning users can be more confident in their activities. Hypernative easily integrates into both protocol security controls and automated trading wallet trading systems.
“Until now, there are no systems that not only accurately predict and warn of hacks before they happen, but also provide practical advice to stop them,” said Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures. “The opportunity ahead for Hypernative is huge as stopping zero-day attacks will go a long way towards rebuilding trust in the crypto ecosystem.”
Hypernative’s ideal customers include hedge funds, exchanges, asset managers, traders and market managers and anyone who interacts with crypto and blockchain protocols who may find themselves in a position where they need to respond quickly to an attack or other type of incident.
