Fuzzing, or fuzz testing, is a quality assurance technique used to identify coding errors and hackable software bugs in enterprise software, networks, or systems. Guardara has built a general-purpose fuzzer, FuzzLabs, to help enterprise security teams easily find code defects and vulnerabilities earlier on in the development process. FuzzLabs can be used by teams in a variety of industries including IoT, medical devices, defence, aerospace, and more.
London TechWatch caught up with Mitali Rakhit to learn more about Guardara, the inspiration for the business, fundraising virtually, and the company’s recent funding round.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Techstars Boston/Techstars – $120K.
Tell us about the product or service Guardara offers.
FuzzLabs is a general-purpose, hybrid fuzzer focused on testing custom and proprietary products. It is extremely flexible, modular, easy to integrate and deploy in CI/CD pipelines.
What inspired the start of Guardara?
Our CTO, Zsolt, was a security engineer and consultant for almost two decades. He frequently used other commercially available fuzzers on the market during engagements and found them very difficult to use after a certain period of time. There was a saturation point beyond which the products lacked flexibility. He built the early version of FuzzLabs as a solution to this problem.
How is Guardara different?
FuzzLabs is extremely flexible and easily customizable. This makes it very easy and convenient to test custom and proprietary products. It is also very easy to integrate into CI/CD pipelines.
What market is Guardara targeting and how big is it?
We are targeting the post-COVID 19 global security testing market, the size of which is expected to grow from USD 6.1 billion in 2020 to USD 16.9 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.3% during the forecast period.
What’s your business model?
We have annual licenses for professional services companies and enterprises.
Who are your major competitors?
Synopsys Defensics, Beyond Security, Peach (Acq. by Gitlab)
What was the funding process like?
Long and requires a lot of persistence.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Going remote due to COVID-19 and being unable to build in-person relationships.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We have an innovative idea centered around a very complex problem. There are a lot of difficult technical challenges we are trying to solve.
We have an innovative idea centered around a very complex problem. There are a lot of difficult technical challenges we are trying to solve.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We are looking to grow our technical team and onboard 10 enterprise customers.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Focus on finding customers, building relationships with them, and understanding their pain points.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We will be building a suite of security testing solutions.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity in London?
Walking around in the summer and hanging out with friends at Borough Market.
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