Open source security solutions firm raises $35m.
Israeli-founded WhiteSource, the pioneer of open source security solutions, has raised $35m. in venture capital funding, the company announced Wednesday.
Founded in 2011 by Rami Sass, Ron Rymon and Azi Cohen, WhiteSource helps businesses harness the power of open source – the primary collaborative building model in modern applications – without compromising on security or slowing development.
The $35m. Series-C funding round was led by the US investment firm Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation by existing investors 83North and M12, formerly Microsoft Ventures. WhiteSource’s total funding to date stands at $46m.
Open source technology refers to a decentralized software development model that encourages public collaboration. An open source product’s source code or design is then open to universal redistribution for use or modification.
The size of the booming open source market was demonstrated by Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub, the world’s largest open source software development community, for $7.5 billion earlier this year.
Yet due to the open source model’s decentralized and widely-accessible nature, it has become necessary to combat vulnerable components that hackers threaten to exploit.
In September 2017, the credit rating agency Equifax said a vulnerability in its open source software was to blame after hackers gained access to personal information of nearly 148 million Americans and more than 200,000 sets of credit card numbers.
WhiteSource has established itself as the leader in the software composition analysis market, which automates open source components management, and its effective usage analysis technology has been proven to reduce vulnerability alerts by 70%.
WhiteSource’s 500 existing customers worldwide include 23% of Fortune 100 companies, as well as Microsoft, IBM, Comcast and KPMG. The company has offices in Tel Aviv, New York and Boston, and plans to expand operations to London and San Francisco.
“We are now at a stage where the question is not whether or not to use open source components, but how to put in place the solutions and policies to manage them well,” said cofounder and CEO Sass.
“Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub for $7.5B showcases that companies have accepted open source as crucial to the software development process, but incidents such as the Equifax data breach underscore the necessity for all companies to protect their products from attacks that would exploit the open source components they are using.”