Ayala funds startup to bolster fight vs cybercrimes

The Ayala Group has joined other investors in the latest funding round for SlashNext, a technology startup that aims to protect billions of global internet users from all forms of phishing or online attacks designed to steal their personal data.

Active Fund, advised by Globe Telecom’s Kickstart Ventures, invested $26 million in SlashNext’s Series B venture capital funding alongside G3 Enterprises and Telia Group, joining early investors Norwest, Wing and Alter Ventures.

Active Fund is short for “Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture Fund,” which was established by AC Ventures together with various Ayala group business units.

“With the new investment, SlashNext will scale its customer acquisition and operations domestically and internationally,” Kickstart said in a statement on Monday. Kickstart is a corporate venture capital firm that invests in early- to early-growth stage tech startups globally.

SlashNext has experienced “significant growth” over the past 12 months since the launch of its product, 360 Phishing Defense-as-a-service.

“With pinpoint accuracy and 48-hour time to detection advantage, SlashNext is delivering the best-in-class [artificial intelligence] cloud and on-device protection, stopping spear phishing, social engineering and other targeted human threats across popular communication channels and collaboration apps to [Southeast Asia],” the statement showed.

$30B in losses

Over 90 percent of all successful cyber breaches start with spear-phishing, which includes ransomware and data theft, costing roughly $30 billion in financial fraud losses, the statement showed.

“When cybercriminals launch successful spear-phishing attacks, the results are massively disruptive to people, organizations and the economy,” SlashNext CEO Patrick Harr said.

“This is the number one cyber challenge that organizations and individuals globally face, and bad actors are only increasing their attacks and becoming more sophisticated at taking advantage of the most vulnerable part of organizations—its people,” he added.

SlashNext said its patented cloud and on-device artificial intelligence-powered platform goes beyond email protection and stops spear-phishing, social engineering and other targeted human threats across popular communication channels and collaboration apps.

“The Active Fund investment in SlashNext recognizes the evolving nature of communication for work and life—data-driven and digital, collaborative and accessible anywhere, any time, and on any device,” Kickstart president Minette Navarrete said in the statement.

“We’re keen to support SlashNext’s mission in tackling this global issue,” she added. INQ