Two recently combined consumer cybersecurity companies are heading off under a new branding to make a run at providing some online peace of mind for regular folks, and they’re doing it with $150 million in capital from Boston-area venture firm General Catalyst and WndrCo, the West Coast technology investor run by former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Burlington, MA-based iSubscribed completed its acquisition of Virginia-based Intersections in January and has since been focused on integrating the companies as well as rebranding the company, now known as Aura.
“From a consumer perspective people want something relatively simple and straightforward for their family and homes, something that protects their devices and all the things happening in their house,” Aura founder and CEO Hari Ravichandran tells Xconomy.
Ravichandran founded iSubscribed after he left another company he started, Endurance International Group (NASDAQ: EIGI), which started helping small businesses get a foothold on the World Wide Web but grew into a multi-faceted company that offered hosting, marketing, security, design, and more. Ravichandran stepped down from Endurance in 2017 amid an SEC investigation into the company.
ISubscribed’s, and now Aura’s, approach to meeting consumers’ needs is to get the best tools they can find, buy, or build under one roof. So far, Aura currently offers a malware and antivirus product called Intrusta as well as an identity theft protection system it acquired from Intersections.
Ravichandran says the company has a couple of ideas for its next products. First, something to cut off spam emails and communications for consumers once they go through the seemingly unavoidable experience of having their personal data leaked online or otherwise sold to some data brokers. The ideal technology would halt the spam, and also lock someone’s credit file before the personal data are misused by a hacker to open a bank or credit account.
Aura’s next focus is on the home and the exploding number of internet-connected devices, Ravichandran says, controlling how they communicate on the network and how much bandwidth they use, and even spot potential intrusions more easily.
iSubscribed raised a $12 million Series A funding round in May 2018, prior to its deal for Intersections. Aura now has $150 million in funding from General Catalyst, WndrCo, and the founding team. The company has 300 employees across offices in Massachusetts; Washington, D.C.; and New Mexico.
Ravichandran says the company has $150 million in revenue and 1.2 million customers who pay monthly fees to use the products.
Click to view XConomy – July 15, 2019