Toronto-based cybersecurity startup Protexxa says it has set a “new achievement” in Canada with the closing of its $10 million CAD Series A round.
Protexxa said the new capital will be used on its platform as well as growing its sales and marketing teams.
Protexxa told BetaKit in an email statement that “a private family office” led the all-equity round, which closed in June. Additional participants include the venture arm of a Canadian telecommunications giant in Bell Ventures as well as Halifax-based Sandpiper Ventures, which supports early-stage companies led by women. Return investors include Crown corporation Export Development Canada (EDC), BKR Capital, The Firehood Angels, and Graphite Ventures.
Two new board members will be announced in August, Protexxa said.
Protexxa was founded by CEO Claudette McGowan in 2021 and secured a $1-million pre-seed and later a $4-million CAD seed round led by BKR Capital in October 2022, which was the largest funding round for a Black woman in Canada according to Toronto Life. Protexxa said the Series A round is “a new achievement.” BKR Capital managing partner Lise Birikundavyi told BetaKit that, as far as they are aware, the Series A round is the biggest equity round for a Black woman founder in Canada.
“We’re excited to continue to back Protexxa – the team is incredibly strong and is solving such an important problem,” Birikundavyi said. “We have been impressed by their growth since our initial investment and are excited to be part of their journey.”
Historically, Black women founders raise a slim fraction of venture capital funding in comparison to their white male counterparts. In total, Protexxa has raised $15 million CAD to date.
McGowan is a prominent figure in Canadian tech, having co-founded The Firehood and previously served as the chief information officer at BMO. She also served as the global executive officer for cybersecurity at TD Canada, where she was named one of four recipients of the inaugural Nation Builder award from the National Angel Capital Organization.
McGowan also chairs the Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR), a group of senior business leaders committed to fighting anti-Black and systemic racism within the innovation economy, and helped launch Phoenix Fire, a women-focused angel fund, in 2022.
Protexxa said the new capital will be used on its platform as well as growing its sales and marketing teams as it looks to expand into global markets. Protexxa will begin its expansion into the United States (US), where it said it is already seeing demand among financial, telecommunications, and healthcare institutions.
A business-to-business software-as-a-service company, Protexxa says it “connects the dots between personal cyber hygiene and business risk.” The company’s artificial intelligence-powered platform, known as Protexxa Defender, gives companies and their employees a “cyber health score” and helps them make security improvements like finding exposed passwords and removing online images. Protexxa says it also provides tailored incident response plans to support customers when cyber attacks occur.
The cybersecurity startup announced its funding on the heels of an unprecedented worldwide disruption caused by a faulty software update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike for Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Feature image courtesy Claudette McGowen via LinkedIn.