Bethesda, Md.-based cybersecurity startup Picnic Corp. has rebranded itself as VanishID and announced $10 million in funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. Other investors include Mark McLaughlin, former CEO and chairman of Palo Alto Networks, and existing investors Crosslink Capital, Rally Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, which has offices in New York, Atlanta, Ga., Washington, D.C., Bright Pixel and New York’s LockStep Ventures.
“I am humbled to work with experienced investors like [Dell Technologies Capital’s] Raman Khanna and Mark McLaughlin, and I am thankful for the continued substantial participation from our existing venture investors. We have never been better positioned to help protect enterprises and their executives from myriad threats represented by digital exposure,” said VanishID founder and CEO Matt Polak.
VanishID focuses on protection of executives’ data, especially from so-called social engineering attacks, and provides what it terms “privacy as a managed service.” Over 93% of C-suite executives have their home addresses exposed, and 99.97% have been involved in a data breach, according to the company. Besides, social engineering is complex and a key vector that IT administrators cannot control. “You’re dealing with humans, not computer systems, and humans are often the weakest link in any system. Plus, you’re dealing with personal data, which can feel like a boundary that’s hard for CISOs to address,” the company says.
Together with the recent funding, the company also announced the launch of a new product, called CEO Protection, designed to protect the digital privacy, and personally identifiable information (PII), of top executives and their families. The company said it would use the investment to continue to invest in go-to-market, while extending its capabilities in agentic AI remediations.
“CEOs, senior executives, and board members face a daunting challenge of being in the public eye yet trying to maintain their and their families’ privacy and security,” said McLaughlin. “VanishID is enabling those two priorities to not be in conflict with each other, which helps both organizations and individuals. I am delighted to help support them on their mission.”
CEO Protection safeguards personal devices of up to 25 family members or associates, besides blocking social media impersonation and other threats. Its arsenal includes a Red Team Assessment that blends physical and digital exposure.
“People represent the largest unprotected attack surface in any enterprise,” said Khanna, managing director of Dell Technologies Capital. The distance between cybersecurity and employees’ physical safety is narrowing dangerously, and corporate leaders are taking action…In a market that has traditionally been served by consumer solutions reliant on manual offshore labor, VanishID has created the first, enterprise-grade, agentic AI solution that solves this problem at scale.”
