Lucideus, a cybersecurity startup based in Delhi, India, recently raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Emeritus John Chambers, the chairman of networking hardware company Cisco Systems, through his investment firm JC2 Ventures. Of the $5 million investment, John Chambers pumped in $4 million and a group of angel investors infused the rest. The company stated the new investment will be used to accelerate its business expansion plans.
Founded in 2012 by Saket Modi along with his friends Rahul Tyagi and Vidit Baxi, the startup delivers information security platforms and services to enterprises and governments globally. Its cybersecurity and risk management platform offer consultancy, training, and solutions to its clients to help them monitor and respond to cyber threats in real time.
The company claims to have the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), ICICI Bank, Quikr, Goibibo, and Tatasky among its clients’ list.
“I think cybersecurity is absolutely in the top three. Many companies do not talk about it, however, because they don’t have a good answer. If you ask a CEO, how would they evaluate their status of risk exposure to cybersecurity and what are they doing as key elements, it’s piecemeal. The CEO would probably struggle. And that’s what Modi got, that others didn’t,” Chambers said in a news statement.
Recently, Cisco Systems acquired cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35 billion to accelerate its operations in cloud computing. The latest deal is the biggest acquisition for Cisco since its $3.7 billion deal with application management company AppDynamics last year. The acquisition integrates Cisco’s network, device, and cloud security platforms with Duo Security’s zero-trust authentication and access products, allowing Cisco clients to connect their users easily and securely.
