$6.5m raised in Series A funding to provide cyber security for IoT devices

Sternum will use the funding to expand its R&D team and bolster its go-to-market strategy as the company ushers in the next generation of IoT with its cyber security and monitoring solutions. The new round brings Sternum’s total funding raised to $10m since being founded in 2018.

40 billion IoT devices are predicted to be in use by 2025, and until now, there has not been a scalable, endpoint cyber security solution that can be installed on individual devices. Instead, manufacturers have heavily relied on vulnerability patching or network security - approaches that have ultimately proven insufficient.

Not only do connected devices lack adequate security protection, manufacturers are not capturing valuable data points from devices in operation. Device data can provide key insights for optimising performance, supporting future developments, and profiling and mitigating third-party behaviour and risk. 

Sternum’s technology is uniquely positioned to accelerate and secure the global implementation of IoT across multiple sectors, including medical, smart energy and utilities, industrial IoT, and more.

Sternum’s scalable, embedded solutions are injected into a device’s binary code and can be integrated into a wide range of IoT devices - low end, high end, old, new, existing devices, RTOS, and Linux-based - with no configurations or changes to existing code required.

Unlike other solutions, Sternum is not focused on the endless race of patching every vulnerability found on a device; instead, its solutions are focused on the exploitation stage of any cyber attack, preventing it in real time by immunising the entire device code against breaches.

Sternum’s next-generation solutions ensure streamlined security and immersive monitoring of all aspects of a device, including third-party components, providing valuable insights that improve products.

“I’m excited to say that we are the only company offering both an embedded, agentless, and holistic security solution for all IoT devices, as well as the ability to monitor them through an intelligent cloud platform, no matter the operating system or resources available, thus creating the first on-device technology acceptable by all IoT devices,” said Natali Tshuva, CEO and Co-founder of Sternum.

“This round, closed during a global pandemic, is a vote of confidence in our dual vision for IoT cyber security and on-device intelligence, our technology, and most importantly, our team. With these new funds, we will continue actively recruiting researchers and engineers to grow our industry-leading R&D team in our mission to secure all IoT devices and obtain insights that will vastly improve our connected world.”

“We are impressed with Sternum’s innovative products and diverse team, whose technologies will power our connected future with uncompromising security protection and rich, data-driven insights,” said Philippe Schwartz, Partner at Square Peg. “We look forward to supporting the Sternum team as they continue to help their customers protect and secure their business-critical IoT devices.”

Sternum has already partnered with public enterprises including Telit (AIM: TCM), as well as a global medical device manufacturer, to provide first-of-its-kind endpoint security for life saving IoT devices. Sternum recently proved the effectiveness of its solutions by successfully blocking the exploitation of multiple critical zero-day vulnerabilities known as Ripple20.

“Authentication, security and real-time monitoring across all IoT devices and applications is a critical problem for manufacturers and consumers,” said Hinrich, Founder and Chairman of Hinrich Foundation. “Sternum’s solutions are unique, scalable, and proven. We are delighted to be invested in and supportive of Sternum’s team and technology, which will assist in bringing trust and dependability to industries implementing IoT.”

Following this investment, Shavit, Schwartz and Hinrich will join Sternum’s Board of Directors.