Cyberattacks are on the rise and victims are getting more attention. According to research by KPMG, nearly half of companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more have recently experienced a security breach. Surprisingly, an overabundance of security tools may be contributing to the problem. In another poll, 43% of companies said their teams were overwhelmed by alerts.
Piyush Sharma is no stranger to cybersecurity tool overload. As Director of Engineering at Symantec, Sharma was responsible for leading the development of several app control, endpoint security, and unified management products and ensuring that these tools worked well together.
“Organizations suffer from tool fragmentation, with disparate security solutions operating in silos, making it difficult to achieve a unified defense strategy,” Sharma told TechCrunch. “Furthermore, the sheer volume of vulnerabilities and alerts can overwhelm security teams, leading to inefficient resource allocation and extended remediation times. These challenges are compounded by limited budgets and the need to meet stringent compliance requirements. It gets even more complicated.”
This did not make Sharma's job any easier. And he thought he might know a better way. So Sharma, along with GE veterans Vipul Parmar and Om Moolchandani, launched Tuskira, a platform that unifies disparate security tools.
“Tuskira was founded to solve the challenge of managing fragmented and reactive security systems,” said Sharma. “The company's mission is to pre-empt threats and optimize security operations to help businesses stay ahead of evolving cyber risks.”
Tuskira looks for exploits and misconfigurations in an enterprise's security stack, providing analysis across code, cloud environments, apps, and infrastructure. Sharma said the platform not only aggregates security tools but also “optimizes” them, ostensibly to improve monitoring capabilities.
“By focusing on reducing attacker dwell time and proactively strengthening defenses, Tuskira is more comprehensive and efficient than competitors who often deal with threats in isolation. We provide a complete solution,” said Sharma. “Tuskira is built for enterprises across industries such as finance, healthcare, technology, and government, delivering actionable insights and measurable improvements to their security posture.”
Tuskira is Sharma, Parmar and Moolchandani's second cybersecurity venture. In 2019, the three founded cloud security startup Accurics, which Tenable acquired in 2021 for $160 million.
Now, Tuskira isn't the only security tool aggregator on the market. Avalor is another. It serves as a source of truth for security assets and allows security teams to track risk data.
Regardless, San Francisco-based Tuskira, which employs about 50 people, was able to win over investors with its pitch. The company recently closed a $28.5 million funding round co-led by Intel Capital and SYN Ventures with participation from Sorenson Capital, Rain Capital, and Wipro Ventures.
This is an impressive feat considering the current state of cybersecurity funding. According to Crunchbase, investors poured just $2.1 billion into cybersecurity startups in the third quarter, down 51% from the amount invested in the second quarter.
“Partnering with these investors provides strategic guidance and connections that will help accelerate Tuskira as we emerge from stealth,” Sharma said. “This funding will be used to advance Tuskira's AI technology, expand integrations, and enhance our customer onboarding process. Tuskira is well-positioned to withstand any headwinds as we raise capital.”