EasyDMARC, an Armenian B2B SaaS startup that aims to simplify email security and authentication, announced it has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by New York-based Radian Capital.
DMARC is a technical standard designed to protect email senders and recipients from spam, spoofing, and phishing. This “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance” was an important but little-known standard until October 2023, when Google and Yahoo! announced they would be making it mandatory for bulk email senders starting this year.
Since DMARC's creation in 2012, many major email providers have worked to implement the protocol for bulk email senders, but many have not implemented it into their systems. EasyDMARC was founded in 2018 by Gerasim Hovhannisyan and Avag Arakelyan and has since gained momentum, with over 83,000 customers in over 130 countries.
Enforcement of this standard clearly helped the startup secure funding.
Hovhannisyan told TechCrunch that the funding round came together pretty easily after Google's announcement. [interest] “We are seeing increasing inquiries from investors. Over 40 venture capital firms have begun talking to us and received many term sheets in March of this year. We are the closest match with Radian in terms of work and culture and have passed their due diligence. We will leverage their network to grow in the U.S. and globally,” Hovhannisyan added.
To be sure, the startup has competitors: Valimail ($84 million raised), ProofPoint, and Minecast ($90.2 million raised) also offer email security and authentication services.
But, says Hovhannisyan, “As the name suggests, our solution is easy. And what's important is that our customers tell us it's easy. That gives them peace of mind. You don't need any expertise to implement our solution.”
Hovannisyan came up with the idea for the company in 2016 after investigating the aftermath of a serious email phishing attack against a multi-billion dollar company. He researched the latest email security technologies and found that while there were a variety of solutions, none of them incorporated the DMARC protocol in a way that was relatively easy for businesses to use. So, together with co-founder Arakelian, he launched the startup in 2018 to tackle this problem.
Further standards will be developed that will provide additional benefits to EasyDMARC.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Starting next March, all Fintech companies will be required to use PCI DSS standards, which is where EasyDMARC benefits.
The funding round also highlights the growing momentum of Armenia's startup ecosystem, which is attracting attention from investors around the world. With a population of around 3 million, Armenia is not a large market, meaning startups can quickly expand internationally. The country also has an advantage with a long history of technological innovation and being one of the top five scientific research centers of the former Soviet Union. Notable local companies include unicorns Picsart and ServiceTitan.
Dana Sadobnick, principal at Radian Capital, said in a statement about the funding round: “EasyDMARC is poised to capitalize on a large and largely untapped market opportunity driven by generational tailwinds such as regulatory announcements from Google and Yahoo and an increase in phishing attacks.”