Blu Venture Investors

Blu Venture Investors, LLC is a venture capital and private equity firm based in Vienna, Virginia, focusing on seed and early-stage investments across various technology sectors. Established in 2010, the firm targets companies involved in Web 2.0, Internet of Things (IoT), software, healthcare technology, digital media, and disruptive technologies in materials and biological sciences. It aims to support innovative solutions for federal defense, homeland security, and medical device sectors, particularly in cybersecurity and other technology areas. Typically, Blu Venture Investors invests between $50,000 and $3 million in each funding round and prefers to take majority stakes in its portfolio companies. The firm also seeks to engage actively by taking board seats and providing mentorship, leveraging the extensive experience of its investors, who are seasoned operating executives across various industries. The firm primarily focuses its investments in the mid-Atlantic region, including Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., and North Carolina.

Eric Adler

Partner

Bikram Bakshi

Partner

Lily Bengfort

Partner

Keith Bozeman

Partner

Joseph Callanan

Partner

Michael Denning

Partner

Benjamin Ebenezer

Managing Principal

Matt Gittleman

Principal

Joshua Miller

Associate

Past deals in Cyber Security

CYBERA

Seed Round in 2022
CYBERA is a fintech platform focused on preventing cybercrime and online fraud specifically for financial institutions. It operates a financial cybersecurity platform that includes an outsourced cybercrime support center, allowing users to report incidents online. The platform also features a watchlist designed to help mitigate losses associated with cyber threats. By providing these services, CYBERA enables banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and law enforcement agencies worldwide to enhance their defenses against motivated cybercrime and improve overall security measures.

Todyl

Series A in 2022
Todyl, Inc. specializes in developing comprehensive security solutions tailored for distributed offices, very small businesses, and advanced networks. The company offers a versatile networking and security platform that integrates Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) functionalities. Todyl's Secure Global Network is a cloud-native platform designed to facilitate secure communication among multiple offices, remote employees, data centers, and cloud services. Its services include secure routing, firewall management, secure DNS with Active Directory integration, cloud VPN, web proxy features, intrusion detection and prevention, content filtering, and malware scanning, among others. The platform emphasizes a Zero Trust approach to security, aiming to mitigate threats such as ransomware and fileless malware. By consolidating various security measures, Todyl enables managed service providers and security service providers to offer effective security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Founded in 2015 and based in Brooklyn, New York, Todyl is committed to delivering cost-effective security programs that address contemporary security challenges.

CommSafe AI

Venture Round in 2022
The CommSafe AI software measures virtual communications for negative sentiment and automatically flags keywords and phrases that are related to instances of workplace conflict and violence. This includes instances of sexual harassment, bullying, and other forms of discrimination. Once a communication is flagged, CommSafe AI sends an alert to the customer's CHRO regarding the incident and recommended next steps and web-based training for affected employees.

Ostendio

Series A in 2021
Ostendio, Inc. specializes in healthcare information security and risk management solutions tailored for healthcare organizations and medical device manufacturers. The company's flagship product, MyVirtualComplianceManager (MyVCM), is a cloud-based platform designed to streamline the development, management, and demonstration of information security frameworks. MyVCM adopts a unique bottom-up approach, engaging all employees in the security and compliance processes, while providing a comprehensive view of an organization’s cybersecurity program. This allows clients to effectively report their security posture to stakeholders. In addition to MyVCM, Ostendio offers services such as performance testing, quality management support, cybersecurity training, and risk assessment program development. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Ostendio serves a diverse clientele across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.

ThreatQuotient

Venture Round in 2021
ThreatQuotient is a threat intelligence platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates unlimited external sources with all internal security and analytics solutions for contextual, operationalized intelligence in a single pane of glass. ThreatQ is also the first TIP to provide Indicator Nurturing, which goes beyond enrichment to help customers tailor indicators of compromise (IOCs) more specifically to their infrastructure. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by two former security operations analysts to provide organizations the ability to correlate with confidence.

ThreatQuotient

Debt Financing in 2021
ThreatQuotient is a threat intelligence platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates unlimited external sources with all internal security and analytics solutions for contextual, operationalized intelligence in a single pane of glass. ThreatQ is also the first TIP to provide Indicator Nurturing, which goes beyond enrichment to help customers tailor indicators of compromise (IOCs) more specifically to their infrastructure. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by two former security operations analysts to provide organizations the ability to correlate with confidence.

Todyl

Venture Round in 2020
Todyl, Inc. specializes in developing comprehensive security solutions tailored for distributed offices, very small businesses, and advanced networks. The company offers a versatile networking and security platform that integrates Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) functionalities. Todyl's Secure Global Network is a cloud-native platform designed to facilitate secure communication among multiple offices, remote employees, data centers, and cloud services. Its services include secure routing, firewall management, secure DNS with Active Directory integration, cloud VPN, web proxy features, intrusion detection and prevention, content filtering, and malware scanning, among others. The platform emphasizes a Zero Trust approach to security, aiming to mitigate threats such as ransomware and fileless malware. By consolidating various security measures, Todyl enables managed service providers and security service providers to offer effective security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Founded in 2015 and based in Brooklyn, New York, Todyl is committed to delivering cost-effective security programs that address contemporary security challenges.

MixMode

Series A in 2020
MixMode is a Cybersecurity platform powered by a cloud-native, self-learning AI with next generation anomaly detection and predictive capabilities. MixMode ingests and monitors large data volume environments (e.g. Cloud, Enterprise, 5G) in real time to discover zero-day threats and attacks with no signature, including those from ransomware, supply chain attacks and insider threats on Zero Trust Architecture. MixMode can be used in the cloud or on premise to deliver increased productivity and efficiency. MixMode’s platform is powered by its patented self-supervised AI, which includes contextual reasoning to explain why threats are highlighted for investigation. This AI is unique in requiring no rules, no intel feeds, and no historical training data in order to operate, avoiding the bias and blindspots that impact legacy systems. MixMode AI is capable of high speed consumption of numerous big data feeds for processing in real-time and is the only DARPA-defined Third Wave AI in Cybersecurity.

CommSafe AI

Seed Round in 2019
The CommSafe AI software measures virtual communications for negative sentiment and automatically flags keywords and phrases that are related to instances of workplace conflict and violence. This includes instances of sexual harassment, bullying, and other forms of discrimination. Once a communication is flagged, CommSafe AI sends an alert to the customer's CHRO regarding the incident and recommended next steps and web-based training for affected employees.

NS8

Series B in 2019
NS8 Inc. is a fraud prevention and user experience protection platform based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with additional offices in Miami Beach, Florida, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, the company offers a suite of tools designed to help online businesses minimize risk through its NS8 Antifraud platform. This platform utilizes machine learning, behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and fraud pattern detection to identify and address fraudulent activities. It provides insights into bot detection and hidden session segmentation, enabling users to understand effective traffic sources. Additionally, NS8's platform offers consumer metrics that allow businesses to display customized content and track the performance of various sales techniques. The company serves a diverse range of industries, including ecommerce platforms, online merchants, payment gateways, and event ticketing sectors. In October 2020, NS8 filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Racktop Systems

Series A in 2019
RackTop was founded by intelligence community veterans who have been solving the most complex data and security problems for over two decades. Today, RackTop develops innovative software products that are revolutionizing the data storage industry by combining high-performance network attached storage with advanced security to solve the most difficult compliance and cyber security challenges facing the modern enterprise. RackTop’s products are unified under a single platform, offering reduced complexity, improved security, and significant cost savings over traditional solutions.

Huntress

Seed Round in 2019
Huntress is an information technology company that provides threat detection and actionable cybersecurity intelligence. It empowers IT Departments and Managed Service Providers (MSP) to expand their capabilities and confidently address their customers’ most complex cybersecurity challenges. The company was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Maryland, United States.

Threater

Seed Round in 2018
Bandura uses simple, innovative technology and best-in-class threat intelligence to secure your networks, data and users in real time - wherever they are. Whether it’s from data we provide out of the box, data from one of our Partner Integrations - or any other data source you have - we block attacks from up to 150 Million malicious IPs and domains in real-time, with no latency. At Bandura, we believe nothing scales like simplicity. We make blocking threats smart and simple - at scale - everywhere.

TrackOFF

Seed Round in 2017
TrackOFF, Inc. is a cybersecurity and privacy company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company specializes in software solutions designed to safeguard users' identities and personal data online. Its primary products include TrackOFF Standard and TrackOFF Elite. TrackOFF Standard enables users to detect and halt tracking threats, conduct private searches, and erase browser history. TrackOFF Elite offers enhanced features suitable for use on public Wi-Fi networks, including location masking and virtual private network (VPN) data encryption. As of May 31, 2019, TrackOFF operates as a subsidiary of Avast Plc.

Ostendio

Seed Round in 2017
Ostendio, Inc. specializes in healthcare information security and risk management solutions tailored for healthcare organizations and medical device manufacturers. The company's flagship product, MyVirtualComplianceManager (MyVCM), is a cloud-based platform designed to streamline the development, management, and demonstration of information security frameworks. MyVCM adopts a unique bottom-up approach, engaging all employees in the security and compliance processes, while providing a comprehensive view of an organization’s cybersecurity program. This allows clients to effectively report their security posture to stakeholders. In addition to MyVCM, Ostendio offers services such as performance testing, quality management support, cybersecurity training, and risk assessment program development. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Ostendio serves a diverse clientele across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.

Huntress

Seed Round in 2017
Huntress is an information technology company that provides threat detection and actionable cybersecurity intelligence. It empowers IT Departments and Managed Service Providers (MSP) to expand their capabilities and confidently address their customers’ most complex cybersecurity challenges. The company was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Maryland, United States.

PFP Cybersecurity

Series A in 2017
PFP is an agile (cloud-based or on-premise) platform that uses dynamic power behavior analysis to detect dangerous implant-based attacks in hardware, firmware, and configuration. PFP constantly monitors the power behavior of devices/IoT in data centers, critical infrastructure, and more; then, data is sent to the cloud where PFP detects malicious actors; dashboards display continuous monitoring and/or are alerted. Remediation occurs with or without human interaction. PFP then has continuous monitoring 24/7 which authenticates, detects, and remediates.

Dark Cubed

Seed Round in 2017
Dark Cubed brings security to the more than 99% of companies that do not have the resources to implement security today. Our SaaS solution augments existing firewalls to provide enterprise-grade security capabilities at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other solutions. We partner with MSPs and service providers to secure their customer base, increase revenue, and capture new customers.

NS8

Seed Round in 2017
NS8 Inc. is a fraud prevention and user experience protection platform based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with additional offices in Miami Beach, Florida, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, the company offers a suite of tools designed to help online businesses minimize risk through its NS8 Antifraud platform. This platform utilizes machine learning, behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and fraud pattern detection to identify and address fraudulent activities. It provides insights into bot detection and hidden session segmentation, enabling users to understand effective traffic sources. Additionally, NS8's platform offers consumer metrics that allow businesses to display customized content and track the performance of various sales techniques. The company serves a diverse range of industries, including ecommerce platforms, online merchants, payment gateways, and event ticketing sectors. In October 2020, NS8 filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Atomicorp

Seed Round in 2016
Atomicorp Ltd. develops security solutions for the protection and support of cloud, virtual, shared, and dedicated Web hosting environments. It offers Atomic Secured Linux, a security solution for Linux Web servers that provides solutions for site defacement and comment spams, Web application vulnerabilities, PCI-DSS and other regulatory compliance, rootkits and malware, denial of service attacks, XML attacks, SQL injections and cross site scripting, CSRF attacks, file and code injections, cookie and credential thefts, persistent threats, recursion attacks, data thefts and information leakages, malware uploads, and more. The company also offers Atomicorp GotRoot ModSecurity Rules, a Web server module that allows users to build a Web application firewall to protect Web applications; Atomicorp Nucleus Repository, a commercial archive that provides PHP 5.3 and related legacy support packages; and Atomicorp Repository, a Linux/MySQL/PHP archive. In addition, it offers a database of signatures, rules, and countermeasures against metacharacter attacks, remote code inclusion, XML schema attacks, buffer overflows, LDAP injection, dangling pointer attacks, and other application and Web based attacks. The company serves commercial enterprises and government agencies. It also sells its products online. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Chantilly, Virginia. Atomicorp Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Prometheus Global, Inc.

NS8

Convertible Note in 2016
NS8 Inc. is a fraud prevention and user experience protection platform based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with additional offices in Miami Beach, Florida, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, the company offers a suite of tools designed to help online businesses minimize risk through its NS8 Antifraud platform. This platform utilizes machine learning, behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and fraud pattern detection to identify and address fraudulent activities. It provides insights into bot detection and hidden session segmentation, enabling users to understand effective traffic sources. Additionally, NS8's platform offers consumer metrics that allow businesses to display customized content and track the performance of various sales techniques. The company serves a diverse range of industries, including ecommerce platforms, online merchants, payment gateways, and event ticketing sectors. In October 2020, NS8 filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

ThreatQuotient

Series B in 2016
ThreatQuotient is a threat intelligence platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates unlimited external sources with all internal security and analytics solutions for contextual, operationalized intelligence in a single pane of glass. ThreatQ is also the first TIP to provide Indicator Nurturing, which goes beyond enrichment to help customers tailor indicators of compromise (IOCs) more specifically to their infrastructure. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by two former security operations analysts to provide organizations the ability to correlate with confidence.

Cybrary

Seed Round in 2016
Cybrary Inc. is an online platform that specializes in information technology and cybersecurity training, catering to a diverse audience that includes beginners, experienced professionals, and families globally. Founded in 2015 and based in College Park, Maryland, the company offers a wide range of training courses covering areas such as systems and network administration, cybersecurity fundamentals, and advanced topics like ethical hacking and penetration testing. Cybrary provides various resources, including instructional lectures, interactive labs, exam study guides, and case studies. It also offers enterprise training solutions, security awareness programs, and tools for educators to incorporate cybersecurity into their curricula. The platform fosters collaboration with an elite community of instructors and industry experts, enabling companies to contribute courses and recruit talent. Additionally, Cybrary's "Teams" product allows organizations to manage employee training, complete with practical labs and skill assessments, making it a comprehensive resource for both individual learners and enterprises seeking to enhance their workforce's skills.

MixMode

Series A in 2016
MixMode is a Cybersecurity platform powered by a cloud-native, self-learning AI with next generation anomaly detection and predictive capabilities. MixMode ingests and monitors large data volume environments (e.g. Cloud, Enterprise, 5G) in real time to discover zero-day threats and attacks with no signature, including those from ransomware, supply chain attacks and insider threats on Zero Trust Architecture. MixMode can be used in the cloud or on premise to deliver increased productivity and efficiency. MixMode’s platform is powered by its patented self-supervised AI, which includes contextual reasoning to explain why threats are highlighted for investigation. This AI is unique in requiring no rules, no intel feeds, and no historical training data in order to operate, avoiding the bias and blindspots that impact legacy systems. MixMode AI is capable of high speed consumption of numerous big data feeds for processing in real-time and is the only DARPA-defined Third Wave AI in Cybersecurity.

PFP Cybersecurity

Series A in 2015
PFP is an agile (cloud-based or on-premise) platform that uses dynamic power behavior analysis to detect dangerous implant-based attacks in hardware, firmware, and configuration. PFP constantly monitors the power behavior of devices/IoT in data centers, critical infrastructure, and more; then, data is sent to the cloud where PFP detects malicious actors; dashboards display continuous monitoring and/or are alerted. Remediation occurs with or without human interaction. PFP then has continuous monitoring 24/7 which authenticates, detects, and remediates.

ThreatQuotient

Series A in 2015
ThreatQuotient is a threat intelligence platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates unlimited external sources with all internal security and analytics solutions for contextual, operationalized intelligence in a single pane of glass. ThreatQ is also the first TIP to provide Indicator Nurturing, which goes beyond enrichment to help customers tailor indicators of compromise (IOCs) more specifically to their infrastructure. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by two former security operations analysts to provide organizations the ability to correlate with confidence.

Blue Triangle

Series A in 2015
Blue Triangle provides digital teams with a connected view of their marketing, web performance, and third-party tag analytics while constantly monitoring website code for security vulnerabilities. With Blue Triangle, teams can track the experience of every web and mobile app visitor in real time and identify specific web performance, third-party tag, and purchase path issues measurably impacting revenue. This data empowers teams to improve and secure their digital experiences along the most critical areas of the customer journey. Blue Triangle is trusted by Fortune 500 companies including The Home Depot, Marriott, and Carnival Cruise Line, and was named a Gartner "Cool Vendor"​ in 2017. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Richmond, VA.

ThreatQuotient

Seed Round in 2015
ThreatQuotient is a threat intelligence platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates unlimited external sources with all internal security and analytics solutions for contextual, operationalized intelligence in a single pane of glass. ThreatQ is also the first TIP to provide Indicator Nurturing, which goes beyond enrichment to help customers tailor indicators of compromise (IOCs) more specifically to their infrastructure. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by two former security operations analysts to provide organizations the ability to correlate with confidence.

Blue Triangle

Venture Round in 2014
Blue Triangle provides digital teams with a connected view of their marketing, web performance, and third-party tag analytics while constantly monitoring website code for security vulnerabilities. With Blue Triangle, teams can track the experience of every web and mobile app visitor in real time and identify specific web performance, third-party tag, and purchase path issues measurably impacting revenue. This data empowers teams to improve and secure their digital experiences along the most critical areas of the customer journey. Blue Triangle is trusted by Fortune 500 companies including The Home Depot, Marriott, and Carnival Cruise Line, and was named a Gartner "Cool Vendor"​ in 2017. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Richmond, VA.

ID.me

Series A in 2014
The mission of ID.me is to make the world a more trusted place by enabling transparent interactions between people and organizations. ID.me is a digital identity network that empowers consumers to prove their identity via a digital medium in contexts where it would benefit the consumer to be known. For relying parties, ID.me provides a single API endpoint through which partners can verify the identity of users attempting to access a website or to unlock an exclusive benefit. The United States Department of Commerce selected ID.me as one of the top five identity companies in America in 2013 and awarded the company a $2.8M grant to participate in the President's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). ID.me was a Finalist for Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year in 2013. Entrepreneur Magazine selected ID.me as one of 100 Brilliant Companies for 2014 in their June 2014 edition. Key customers include SeaWorld, Overstock.com, Under Armour, Dell, Sears Holding Corporation, and 129 additional retailers and brands.

ID.me

Convertible Note in 2013
The mission of ID.me is to make the world a more trusted place by enabling transparent interactions between people and organizations. ID.me is a digital identity network that empowers consumers to prove their identity via a digital medium in contexts where it would benefit the consumer to be known. For relying parties, ID.me provides a single API endpoint through which partners can verify the identity of users attempting to access a website or to unlock an exclusive benefit. The United States Department of Commerce selected ID.me as one of the top five identity companies in America in 2013 and awarded the company a $2.8M grant to participate in the President's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). ID.me was a Finalist for Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year in 2013. Entrepreneur Magazine selected ID.me as one of 100 Brilliant Companies for 2014 in their June 2014 edition. Key customers include SeaWorld, Overstock.com, Under Armour, Dell, Sears Holding Corporation, and 129 additional retailers and brands.

ID.me

Venture Round in 2012
The mission of ID.me is to make the world a more trusted place by enabling transparent interactions between people and organizations. ID.me is a digital identity network that empowers consumers to prove their identity via a digital medium in contexts where it would benefit the consumer to be known. For relying parties, ID.me provides a single API endpoint through which partners can verify the identity of users attempting to access a website or to unlock an exclusive benefit. The United States Department of Commerce selected ID.me as one of the top five identity companies in America in 2013 and awarded the company a $2.8M grant to participate in the President's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). ID.me was a Finalist for Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year in 2013. Entrepreneur Magazine selected ID.me as one of 100 Brilliant Companies for 2014 in their June 2014 edition. Key customers include SeaWorld, Overstock.com, Under Armour, Dell, Sears Holding Corporation, and 129 additional retailers and brands.

ID.me

Series A in 2011
The mission of ID.me is to make the world a more trusted place by enabling transparent interactions between people and organizations. ID.me is a digital identity network that empowers consumers to prove their identity via a digital medium in contexts where it would benefit the consumer to be known. For relying parties, ID.me provides a single API endpoint through which partners can verify the identity of users attempting to access a website or to unlock an exclusive benefit. The United States Department of Commerce selected ID.me as one of the top five identity companies in America in 2013 and awarded the company a $2.8M grant to participate in the President's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). ID.me was a Finalist for Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year in 2013. Entrepreneur Magazine selected ID.me as one of 100 Brilliant Companies for 2014 in their June 2014 edition. Key customers include SeaWorld, Overstock.com, Under Armour, Dell, Sears Holding Corporation, and 129 additional retailers and brands.