Guy Filippelli’s Squadra Ventures has led a $8 million round for NetRise, an Austin, Texas firm building security for proliferating Extended Internet of Things, or XIoT, devices. Besides the Baltimore-based venture firm, other investors included three California firms — Corona del Mar-based Miramar Digital Ventures; Menlo Park-based Sorenson Ventures; and San Mateo-based DNX Ventures. In 2021, NetRise raised $6.8 million.
“Tom and his team are experienced, gritty, driven, and will outwork anyone in the room,” said Filippelli, a storied Baltimore-area entrepreneur who early in his career served as intelligence officer for the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They are world-class and will continue to innovate ahead of the market and bring critical technology to the industry just in time, as the White House and other regulatory agencies pressure manufacturers and software providers to infuse security into devices and disclose critical vulnerabilities.”
‘On Par with Older Firms’
NetRise’s platform delivers unprecedented automation and scale, making continuous monitoring a reality for enterprise XIoT, said Adam Bixler, who oversees cybersecurity practice at Squadra Ventures. “We are seeing massive global acceleration in the market as companies around the world are looking to drive visibility into the software supply chain.” With Software Bill of Materials regulation and requirements looming, NetRise could not be more perfectly positioned, he added. Bixler is an alumnus of University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
“We have already developed capabilities that are on par with companies much older and more well-funded than us, so this [funding round] is going to provide us even more fuel to continue developing our innovative platform,” NetRise co-founder and CEO Thomas Pace, who served in the US Marine Corps and the Department of Energy, where he oversaw the security of industrial control systems. “Special thanks to Guy Filippelli and Adam Bixler for leading the charge on this round, we are thrilled to partner with you guys,” added Pace.
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Pace and Michael Scott, who previously was an engineer at Cylance, co-founded NetRise with the aim of enhancing XIoT security. The duo contends that traditional security solutions “leave a massive, misunderstood gap,” because they have zero visibility on the firmware and underlying software components of the devices.
Entrepreneurial Creds
Besides his stint in the US Army, Filipelli has, through his career served as the founder-CEO of a bootstrapped IT services firm (Berico Technologies), and as the founder-CEO of a venture-backed cybersecurity company (RedOwl Analytics). In 2017, Raytheon acquired RedOwl for $54 million.
Two years later, Filipelli established Squadra Ventures, with a focus on investing in early stage cyber and national security companies. It has raised $37.6 million from two funds. So far, it has made 11 portfolio investments and exited one. Its recent portfolio investments include Datalogz, VirgilHR, Overwatch Imaging and Instant Teams.
