Lighting the dark web: why we invested in Flare

By Christophe Bourque and Sanjay Zimmermann

TLDR: White Star Capital is proud to continue backing Flare as the company raises a $30m Series B led by Base10 to expand the foundational dark web solution needed to thrive in a digital landscape plagued with perpetual threats.

As organisations across the globe face an escalating wave of digital threats, Flare’s Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solution is providing businesses with the robust intelligence needed to navigate and neutralise risks across the open, deep, and dark web.

Having initially invested in Flare’s Seed round in 2019, the company’s impressive growth trajectory and product development has only deepened our conviction in the platform.

As we celebrate Flare’s $30m Series B milestone, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on what drew us to the company five years ago and why we believe it has another exciting five years ahead.

Addressing a growing demand for affordable cybersecurity solutions

Cybercrime is forecast to cost the global economy $9.5tn in 2024. And in recent years even the largest organisations (who wield significant cybersecurity budgets) such as AWS and the US State Department have fallen victim.

Alongside the growing number of attacks, cyber threats are evolving rapidly, with perpetrators capitalising on an era where our physical and digital worlds are increasingly intertwined.

Businesses no longer face vulnerabilities across the open web, but also have to monitor for leaks and threats in the deep and dark web environments.

For most businesses, this requires significant internal resources, budgets, and tech tools. This means that small and medium-sized businesses are often left defenceless against today’s sophisticated cybercriminals, as they lack the capital to pay for expensive solutions.

Enter, Flare.

Flare’s platform offers businesses an all-encompassing view into all areas of the web, be it open or dark, and was one of the first cybersecurity players to utilise AI-driven technology to discover, prioritise, and deliver actionable insights into potential threats and leaks.

Flare’s solution goes beyond just detection. The company’s recently announced Threat Flow and AI Assist functionalities streamline threat identification and reporting, empowering companies to act quickly and effectively.

Flare’s Threat Flow module — the security industry’s first transparent generative AI application that delivers timely, relevant, and trustworthy reports of threat actor activity on the dark web, enabling scaled research and reporting for security teams, has been validated with a 98% accuracy.

The impressive leadership team, now fronted by industry veteran Norman Menz, and compelling product vision led us to back the team in 2019. Since then, Flare has grown rapidly, with over 200+ new b2b customers from a wide range of sectors including healthcare, technology, financial services, and government.

Continuous product development

Flare’s ongoing commitment to product innovation is a key reason for our confidence in their long-term potential. The platform now monitors over 2.1 billion cybercrime-related documents, 18 billion leaked credentials, and maintains a seven-year archive of the dark web.

This expansive data set, one of the largest proprietary collections in the market, uniquely positions Flare to detect exposures that others miss.

Moreover, their recent launch of Threat Flow and AI Assist provides real-time threat intelligence, prioritising issues and simplifying complex information for decision-makers across technical and non-technical teams.

This ease of deployment and instant threat visibility have made Flare a go-to solution for enterprises needing rapid, actionable insights.

The right team to capitalise on a huge market opportunity

With almost 80 full-time employees, Flare has brought on board considerable talent since its seed round.

The likes of Jason Haddix, field Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Katherine Issac, Director of Client Success, and Serge-Olivier Paquette, Chief Product Officer, all bring significant expertise with them having worked at companies such as Ubisoft, Secureworks, and NorthSec.

With the fresh round of funding, Flare will continue to expand its data collection, invest in additional AI tools, and strengthen its go-to-market and customer success teams.

We are thrilled to be backing Flare alongside current co-investors as part of this Series B, alongside the new lead, Base10, which has backed companies such as Figma, Stripe, Instacart, and Notion.

As always, we believe in partnering with companies to build game-changing solutions in essential markets, and Flare exemplifies this. As they continue on their growth path, we look forward to helping them scale their impact and provide even more businesses worldwide with the security needed to thrive in an increasingly digital landscape.

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If you want to explore our thoughts on the cybersecurity sector in more detail, read our recent Data-driven Transformation report. We’ll also be posting a more in-depth look at how artificial intelligence is being applied to cybersecurity in the coming weeks, stay tuned.