Why We Invested in Blumira
The factors that are making cybersecurity so difficult right now for large enterprises with dedicated security operations teams – factors including digital transformation, hybrid clouds, increasing attack surface, scarcity of cybersecurity professionals – are, understandably, also making cybersecurity harder for mid-market companies with far fewer security resources.
Some companies that have tried to use traditional observability solutions as part of their security stack without any security operations team members have struggled. These solutions, including traditional SIEM, can be expensive and challenging to use – not at all well-adapted for non-security specialists. A market gap has thus risen, because businesses of all sizes still face serious incidents and rigorous compliance requirements and need workable security analytics and monitoring solutions.
With this challenge in mind, today we announce our investment in our newest portfolio company, Blumira. Blumira provides a cloud security monitoring platform for companies of all sizes and types with flexible, easy-to-set-up integrations and user-centric design. Its cloud security tools provide companies with the benefits of observability and monitoring technology, with particular attention to teams that may not be able to staff or operate a SOC in-house.
Blumira’s platform helps companies safeguard data, identify threats, and meet compliance standards with quick deployment and easy updates. With its modern, flexible platform, Blumira enables robust cybersecurity for all, including those without a large, dedicated security team.
When we saw Blumira’s initial traction, we were impressed with the company’s operational skill and strong ability to execute on its large vision. Feedback from customers is always crucial to our diligence. We appreciated the continued emphasis Blumira customers placed on the rapid integrations and quick time to value they found in the platform (in fact, Blumira recently announced they are enabling organizations to detect and respond to cloud security threats five times faster than the average SIEM provider.) We were also impressed by the company’s clear focus on education and support necessary to serve their customer base, including playbooks designed for general IT staff (no trained security skills necessary). Blumira’s platform is also helping small businesses meet necessary new compliance requirements, including HIPAA, PCI DDS, and CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, designed to protect controlled unclassified information (CUI) on federal contractors’ networks). The company’s overall innovation in data parsing and normalization, fine-tuning, support delivery, and user experience are genuinely helping businesses without large numbers of dedicated security professionals better access and benefit from solid cybersecurity.
Blumira also represents our first investment in a company founded in Michigan. Ten Eleven Ventures is a geographically distributed firm focused on finding the best innovation worldwide, no matter where that company is based. Blumira has found inspiration and talent in its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Its founders have run cybersecurity businesses in this area for decades and have many other experienced technology operators amongst its ranks – it is exciting for the company to have such excellent talent on board at such an early stage in its journey. On a personal note, it is rewarding to invest in a company based in my home state of Michigan, a place I visit often and which is home to many fantastic entrepreneurs.
We are thrilled to have this opportunity to support Blumira in its mission to enable security for companies of all sizes and help grow a Michigan-based company. We are happy to be joined in this investment by our friends at Mercury Fund, M25, and Array Ventures, as well as strategic investors. Blumira has an important mission and the founders have set out firmly with an excellent map – we look forward to more good news from these innovators as they continue their journey.
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