Online fraud prevention startup Arkose Labs Inc. said today it has raised $22 million in new funding to hire more people and further develop its anti-fraud platform.

The Series B round was led by Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, and included previous investors PayPal Holdings Inc. and USVP.

Founded in 2016, Arkose Labs aims to “bankrupt the business model of fraud” through a platform that not only detects online fraud but also traces those behind attacks and then attempts to have their operations shut down. The company’s platform is designed to protect from activities such as account takeovers, fake account abuse, scraping, scams and gift card abuse.

Services offered by the company include Arkose Detect, a dynamic risk engine that analyzes data from user sessions and their interactions with technology for accurate behavioral analytics and anomaly detection. An additional service, Arkose Enforce, offers a challenge-response mechanism that works in conjunction with Arkose Detect to authenticate unrecognized requests.

“Our platform takes a zero-tolerance approach to cyberattacks and our team is committed to putting a stop to the global fraud epidemic,” Arkose Labs founder and Chief Executive Kevin Gosschalk said in a statement.

The company said it customers in financial services, e-commerce, media, gaming and emerging technology include Microsoft Corp., GitHub Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Singapore Airlines Ltd., Roblox Corp. and Twilio Inc. Arkose claimed in January to have more than doubled its customer base.

Raising venture capital during a global pandemic is certainly interesting but despite these troubled times, the cybersecurity industry may be one to survive the economic turmoil.

“There are risks to smaller and emerging firms but sales revenue and the amount of capital raised provides resilience,” Rick Holland, chief information security officer and vice president of strategy at digital risk firm Digital Shadows Ltd., told SiliconANGLE. “To avoid going extinct, startups must have enough funds to cover operating expenses over the next few months to weather the COVID-19 storm.”

In that regard, Arkose Labs’ new round is arguably fortunate in its timing. Including the new funding, it has raised $36.5 million to date.

Image: Arkose Labs