The software program provide chain faces threats from all sides. A 2024 report by the Ponemon Institute discovered that over half of organizations have skilled a software program provide chain assault, with 54% having skilled one throughout the previous yr.
Provide chain assaults sometimes goal providers from third-party distributors or open supply software program that make up an organization’s tech stack, they usually can financially devastate a company. In accordance to a Juniper Analysis examine, provide chain cyberattacks may price the worldwide economic system virtually $81 billion in misplaced income and damages by 2026. The White Home has indicated a dedication to addressing the broader problem of software program provide chain safety, overtly declaring it a nationwide safety drawback and releasing an government order aimed toward establishing mitigatory requirements.
The menace has fueled the demand for platforms that can be utilized to detect — and, in an ideal world, mitigate — assaults on a enterprise’ software program provide chain. One startup creating such a platform, Lineaje (a semi-phonetic spelling of “lineage”), in the present day closed a $20 million Sequence A funding spherical.
Based in 2021 by Javed Hasan and Anand Revashetti, Lineaje develops instruments to detect software program in a company’s provide chain that’s been tampered with, in addition to outdated, doubtlessly susceptible open supply software program. As soon as Lineaje finds a probable vulnerability, it recommends fixes — if any can be found — and warns towards implementing people who may break the software program.
“For organizations that care concerning the threat their software program creates for his or her organizations in addition to their prospects, focusing and managing this threat is essential,” Hasan, Lineaje’s CEO, informed TechCrunch. “Lineaje was born to find, handle and safe software program no matter the place it’s constructed.”
Each Hasan and Revashetti hail from the cybersecurity trade, having labored at distributors together with Symantec, McAfee and Norton. They crossed paths whereas at McAfee, the place Revashetti was a fellow and chief architect.
“Software program provide chain assaults and considerations have been steadily growing,” Hasan mentioned. “As we checked out this area, it was clear that that offer chain was a top-three concern for CISOs and the U.S. authorities.”
Lineaje occupies a crowded market. Kusari, Ox Safety, Chainguard, Dustico and Endor are amongst its rivals, and large tech firms resembling Google, Amazon and Microsoft are mounting efforts to enhance normal open supply software program safety.
However a method Lineaje is trying to face out is by embracing protection work. Hasan claims that the corporate has a contract with the U.S. Air Power to help its “Eagle Eyes” anti-terrorism program in addition to relationships with different unnamed federal companies.
Public sector companies actually take care of software program provide chain challenges just like what the non-public sector sees. A current report launched by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety discovered that one U.S. authorities cupboard company spent months responding to a vulnerability within the library of Apache’s Log4j2, a Java-based logging utility, partly as a result of its safety groups had bother figuring out the place the susceptible packages resided inside their software program environments.
The proceeds from Lineaje’s Sequence A, which convey the startup’s complete raised to $27 million, will bolster its efforts to accumulate much more U.S. public sector clientele, Hasan continued.
“The Sequence A funding spherical will cowl us till early 2027 at the least,” he mentioned, including that final yr was Lineaje’s first yr of income. “We’ve got about 30 workers presently, with plans to double headcount by the top of the yr.”
The spherical was co-led by Prosperity7 Ventures, Neotribe and Hitachi with participation from Tenable Ventures, Carahsoft, Wipro Ventures, SecureOctane and AlumniVentures.
