INKY receives series A funding to enhance analytics capabilities of the software and expand sales and marketing.
INKY Technology Corporation, the leading email security company based in Rockville, Maryland, announces today that ClearSky Security led the Series A round to invest $5.6 million to enhance analytics capabilities of the software and expand sales and marketing. Gula Tech Adventures also participated in the round, and Blackstone (NYSE:BX) has joined as a strategic investor. ClearSky Security Managing Director Peter Kuper has joined CEO/founder Dave Baggett, co-founder Simon Smith, and The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) CIO Chris Hjelm on the company’s board of directors.
“We’re incredibly pleased to partner with ClearSky to bring INKY’s machine learning-based email protection technology to the wider market and solve the global phishing problem once and for all and at scale. We plan to hire 12 more people in our Rockville office by the end of the year,” said Inky CEO Dave Baggett.
INKY’s anti-phishing solution, INKY Phish Fence, uses novel computer vision and anomaly detection algorithms to identify and block both brand forgery emails and spear phishing attempts. INKY Phish Fence also adds helpful warning banners to unusual or suspicious emails, giving users specific guidance on potentially problematic messages. Users can report phishing emails via a “Report This Email” link added to each email. Inky Phish Fence works on any endpoint via any mail client, with no additional client software required.
INKY Phish Fence integrates directly into Microsoft Office 365® in minutes, and provides IT/Security teams a rich reporting and measurement dashboard to assess blocked threats and reported phishing emails. INKY Phish Fence supports Google G Suite® implementations as well.
“Phishing is one of the biggest cybersecurity concerns, so we’d been looking for over a year for a promising startup in this space. We found INKY and were immediately impressed. Our network of CISOs and other trusted advisors confirmed INKY as a disruptive new approach to phishing prevention. We’re excited to partner with INKY to usher in the next generation of phishing protection,” said ClearSky partner Peter Kuper.
About ClearSky
ClearSky is a venture capital/growth equity firm that has been operating since 2012 with offices in Florida, New York, Boston and San Francisco. ClearSky is currently investing through two funds: ClearSky Power & Technology and ClearSky Security. ClearSky Power & Technology invests in innovative companies providing technology and services to enterprise customers, with a special focus on the power sector. ClearSky Security invests in companies that offer transformative solutions for cybersecurity, industrial security and critical infrastructure security.
About INKY
Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, INKY leads the industry in mail protection powered by computer vision and related machine learning algorithms. The company’s flagship product, INKY Phish Fence, uses these novel techniques to “see” each email much like a human does, to block phishing attacks that get through every other system. INKY founder Dave Baggett also co-founded ITA Software, the industry-leading airfare search company purchased by Google in 2011 for $730M which now powers Google Flights®. For more information, please visit https://inky.com/