Announcing our $3M pre-seed round to fight nation state cyber threats and ransomware

As a cybersecurity industry veteran and inventor, I am dissatisfied with the current state of technology and the offerings available to small businesses – especially those targeted by nation-state threats. I am co-founding RADICL to defend these innovative and important companies, and by so doing, serve and defend the interests of the United States. I’m excited to announce our $3M pre-seed round. 

Founded by a proven and experienced team, RADICL Defense will provide military-grade cybersecurity to protect advanced industries within the SMB segment

BOULDER, CO – Nov. 8, 2021 – RADICL Defense, a cybersecurity startup founded by experienced cybersecurity leader Chris Petersen, former Co-Founder and CTO of LogRhythm, announced its $3M pre-seed funding today.

The round was led by Access Venture Partners with participation from the Cyber Mentor Fund and strategic angel investors. RADICL Defense will use the funds to hire additional team members in support of developing its platform and offering. 

Previous early-stage investor in LogRhythm, Frank Mendicino, Managing Partner at Access Venture Partners, said, “RADICL Defense’s mission of protecting the information systems of SMB’s and contractors involved in highly sensitive work in the realm of national defense is critical to the future of our democracy and the global competitiveness of our economy. Access is delighted to continue our decade-long relationship with Chris Petersen and his team and proud to help support a company with such an important mission.” 

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) supporting advanced industries and national defense are being actively targeted by nation-state threats. These innovative companies are realizing intellectual property theft at an alarming rate. These losses impact their long-term global competitiveness and weaken the national security posture of the United States. 

The SMB sector, especially those serving national security interests, needs better options. Unfortunately, due to budgetary and staffing constraints, most SMBs lack access to the latest in cybersecurity technologies and are woefully behind in cybersecurity maturity. To defend against advanced threats and ransomware, these businesses need military-grade protection they can realistically adopt and afford. 

Concerned with the daunting challenge facing SMBs and their impact on US national security, Petersen and his team, David Graff, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and defense industry executive, and Matt Petersen, a founding LogRhythm engineer with extensive knowledge of SIEM, founded RADICL Defense in early 2021 and are uniquely positioned to solve for this challenge.  

In 2002, Petersen co-founded LogRhythm, a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader in next-generation Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). As LogRhythm’s CTO, Chris led pioneering industry advancements in SIEM, Security Orchestration Automation and response (SOAR), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Extended Detection and response (XDR).  

“SMBs are the engine of innovation in the United States. The inventions of SMBs deserve military-grade cyber protection from nation-states that would steal them, and cyber criminals that would ransom them. Current options available to SMBs are lackluster at best. RADICL Defense was borne to bring this underserved segment true cyber threat protection, and by so doing, serve the long-term national security interests of the United States.”