Stairwell Raises $20M Series A to Revolutionize Cybersecurity

Stairwell Emerges with $20 Million in Series A Funding

Initially operating in secrecy since its 2020 emergence, Stairwell is now publicly discussing its operations. The company has secured $20 million in Series A funding, led jointly by Sequoia Capital and Accel.

Mike Wiacek, founder and CEO of Stairwell, previously held the position of chief security officer at Chronicle, Google’s cybersecurity initiative. He is now prepared to detail the company’s mission.

Introducing Inception: A Novel Threat-Hunting Platform

Alongside the funding announcement, Stairwell is launching Inception, a platform designed to assist organizations in identifying current or past security compromises. This platform distinguishes itself through a unique cybersecurity methodology.

Inception employs an “inside out” approach, prioritizing the analysis of a company’s internal data before considering external threats. Wiacek explained to TechCrunch that this strategy focuses on understanding the internal landscape first.

The Advantage of Internal Visibility

This approach offers a significant advantage, as internal data is not accessible to malicious actors. It’s information that remains exclusive to the organization being protected.

All collected data is treated as potentially suspicious and is continuously assessed against emerging threat intelligence and indicators. Stairwell asserts this allows for anomaly detection within days, a substantial improvement over the industry average of 280 days.

Beyond Traditional Threat Intelligence

Wiacek questions the effectiveness of relying solely on external threat intelligence feeds. He posits that sophisticated attackers anticipate what is known by standard security vendors.

“Attackers are aware of what solutions like McAfee detect, but they lack knowledge of an organization’s unique internal data,” Wiacek stated. “This internal understanding provides a powerful defensive advantage.”

Future Growth and Platform Availability

The $20 million Series A funding, following a $4.5 million seed round secured less than a year prior, will be allocated to further development of the Inception platform and expansion of the Stairwell team.

Currently, the Palo Alto-based company employs 21 individuals. The Inception platform is now available in early release to a select group of customers.

General availability is planned for 2022, with the goal of enabling enterprises to proactively “outsmart the bad guys”.

Wiacek expressed a desire for having a product like Inception available during the SolarWinds attack.