Risk I/O Adds New CEO, $4 Million in Funding
Featured on Crain’s Chicago Business
Risk I/O, a fast-growing security software startup, has gotten new funding and a new CEO.
The Chicago company hired Silicon Valley veteran Karim Toubba, who ran Juniper Networks Inc.’s security business, as CEO. Founder Ed Bellis will remain with the company. Mr. Toubba will be based in San Francisco, where Risk I/O has been building a sales office.
He’s the second executive from Juniper, a maker of networking equipment that’s based in Sunnyvale, California, recruited to lead a Chicago tech startup. John Morris, who led Juniper’s sales, joined data-storage maker Cleversafe Inc. nearly 18 months ago.
“I wanted to run a business that was solving a significant problem,” Mr. Toubba told me. “My biggest concern about security is all the noise about things the security vendors are attempting to claim they solve.”
Mr. Bellis, an Orbitz veteran who launched Risk I/O as HoneyApps four years ago, said the company has quadrupled revenue and doubled headcount to 20; half are in Chicago.
“We’ve gotten beyond that critical product-market fit stage, and it’s about being able to scale this,” he said. “My focus will be on product, the technology.”
Mr. Toubba is credited with turning around Juniper’s security business in the past two years. “Karim is a proven innovator in the security space,” Mr. Morris said.
Risk I/O raised $4 million from an existing investor, Costanoa Venture Partners of Palo Alto, California. Its other backers, Chicago-based Hyde Park Angels and Silicon Valley funds U.S. Venture Partners and Tugboat Ventures, also invested.
HACKS FUEL DEMAND
Risk I/O is riding high.
It’s benefiting from dual tailwinds: an increase in hacking and other cyberattacks, and apartnership with Dell Inc. launched this year.
Risk I/O’s software monitors threats across the Internet and determines the most serious ones, based on a customer’s IT configuration and potential vulnerabilities, helping security teams focus their limited resources.
“We just had our best quarter so far,” Mr. Bellis told me.