Cyble, a cybersecurity startup that styles itself as a “threat intelligence provider,” today announced that it raised $24 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital with participation from Spider Capital, January Capital, Summit Peak Ventures and others. 

The new cash will be put toward Cyble’s general R&D, co-founder and CEO Beenu Arora says, as well as market expansion.

“This investment stands as a testament to the hard work our team has been investing to execute toward our vision,” he added in a press release. “With this investment, we’re able to significantly ramp up our product investments and our global marketing efforts.”

Some experts say that threat intelligence — the data that’s collected and analyzed to understand a malicious actor’s motives — is becoming an increasingly important component in combating emerging cyber exploits. The majority of organizations agree. According to a 2022 survey from Security Magazine, 75% of companies have dedicated threat intelligence teams while two-thirds have dedicated threat intelligence budgets.

But talent issues threaten to hold many organizations’ intelligence efforts back — at least in the sense that the efforts don’t stay sufficiently predictive to keep cybersecurity teams ahead of threats. Responding to the same Security Magazine survey, 73% of organizations said that they see a “lack of skills” as their biggest threat intelligence challenge.

Founded by Arora and Manish Chachada in 2019, Cyble monitors both dark web and “surface web” data to map — and attempt to mitigate — companies’ digital risk footprints. The startup builds custom threat-hunting solutions for customers, including government agencies and Fortune 50 brands, and claims to have visibility into over 6,000 “darknet” marketplaces — i.e. marketplaces used mostly for illegal file sharing.

Cyble competes with vendors like SnapAttack, which spun out of Booz Allen with a library of labeled threat data. But when asked about the competition, Zeb Rice, an investor at King River Capital, had this to say:

“From our extensive work in AI over the last 15 years, it’s evident Cyble is deploying this groundbreaking tech in a way that is revolutionizing cybersecurity. Its platform is capable of identifying and guarding against diverse threats from across the web on an unprecedented scale. And the growth and caliber of its customer base stand testament to the global recognition from companies needing best-in-class protection in an ever-evolving and intricate digital landscape.”

In any case, the fact that Cyble could raise cash now is a testament to its momentum. Crunchbase reports that venture funding for cybersecurity dropped to just slightly more than $1.6 billion in the just completed second quarter, a 63% drop from the same quarter last year when startups saw nearly $4.3 billion.

Cyble — which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, a hotbed for cyber ventures — has raised $38.6 million in funding to date. The Series B is the company’s first fundraising since February 2022; Arora bootstrapped the startup for the first two years.