In early June, Singapore-based venture capital fund Cocoon Capital announced a seed investment of SGD875,000 (AUD950,000) in API-security startup Aiculus.
The significance of such a raise at a time of global financial downturn is immense.
The Aiculus API security platform helps business gain maximum benefit from APIs without compromising their risk profiles.
"Aiculus is addressing a key need for financial services to secure their data and services while adapting to a more open financial infrastructure,” said Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital, Will Klippgen.
“Attacks on financial institutions also threaten national security and we at Cocoon are looking very much forward to an exciting journey to bring their solutions to global customers,” he added.
So is Aiculus Founder and CEO, Dr Omaru Maruatona. As well as achieving a PhD in Applied AI, and publishing peer-reviewed research on AI-powered security, Omaru has deep experience in systems engineering and the R&D of AI algorithms, and spent years working as a Technical Security Analyst and cyber-security consultant across a range of sectors including finance, academics, and consulting.
“Aiculus was perfectly positioned to catch the wave of interest in API security,” Dr Omaru Maruatona explains.
“We knew the exploding popularity of APIs would necessitate new security solutions, and since I started Aiculus back in 2017, we’ve been evolving our solutions in line with API technology and market needs and pressures.”
That work has now been vindicated by the Cocoon Capital seed funding which, Omaru explains, will be spent on growing the team and its capability to expand product coverage across South East Asia.
“Our next challenge is to find and onboard customers onto our platform. I look forward to discussions with CEOs, CTOs, CISOs, CIOs, API engineers, Cyber security and technical Risk specialists,” he added.
“Once we understand how a client uses APIs, and how they’re secured, we can identify ways to complement and boost their existing security controls — without increasing their risk profile.”