Crowdsourced cybersecurity platform startup Bugcrowd Inc. today announced it has raised $102 million in new funding to accelerate growth and consider strategic mergers and acquisitions.

Founded in 2012, Bugcrowd connects companies and their applications to security researchers to identify critical software vulnerabilities. Bugcrowd’s main offering is a bug bounty program that enables its clients to pay security researchers to uncover bugs on their websites and applications.

The platform includes artificial intelligence features, which, combined with its crowdsourced security services, help identify and remediate security vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them. The number of vulnerabilities found is impressive. It identified almost 23,000 high-impact vulnerabilities in 2023, the company said, helping prevent potential breach-related costs of up to $100 billion.

Bugcrowd said it has added more than 200 new clients to its roster over the past year, among them OpenAI, T-Mobile US Inc., Rapyd Financial Network Ltd. and ExpressVPN International Ltd. Other notable clients include Wise Group Ltd., HP Inc., Atlassian Corp., Twilio Inc., Barracuda Networks Inc., Okta Inc. and Western Union Co.

The company now has nearly 1,000 clients and has seen 40% growth in the overall business and nearly 100% growth in a Pentest as a Service business.  The company claims to have a track record of success with a diverse and growing customer base who have experienced tangible results and improved security posture through Bugcrowd’s PTaaS, Bug Bounty, vulnerability disclosure program and attack surface management offerings.

General Catalyst Group X L.P. led the strategic growth financing round, with Rally Ventures Management LLC and Costanoa Ventures L.P. also participating. As part of the deal, Mark Crane, partner at General Catalyst and Paul Sagan, senior adviser at General Catalyst, will join the Bugcrowd Board of Directors.

“We saw an opportunity to make a strategic investment in the crowdsourced security market, with the goal of fostering collaboration between customers and hackers to collectively tackle real threats and vulnerabilities,” Crane said. “In our view, the validation from customers, hackers, industry analysts and the broader cybersecurity community well positions Bugcrowd to be a category-leading company.”

Chief Executive Dave Gerry and founder, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Casey Ellis spoke with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s video studio, in May to discuss how Bugcrowd plans to transform the penetration testing market:

Image: Bugcrowd