Tech

HackerOne raises $25 million in vulnerability management push

The company plans to use the investment to promote a "safer Internet" through extended vulnerability disclosure.

Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer June 24, 2015 at 4:00 a.m. PT

HackerOne has raised $25 million in a fresh funding round and plans to use the proceeds to extend its vulnerability management and disclosure platform.

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HackerOne is a vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty platform connecting businesses with security researchers. Over 250 companies including Yahoo!, Adobe, DropBox, LinkedIN, Twitter and Wordpress are counted as customers of the San Francisco-based firm, which has paid out roughly $3.2 million to security researchers for bug reports and has acted as the conduit for over 10,000 bug fixes.

The latest $25 million finance push is led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and includes existing investor Benchmark. In addition, angel investors such as Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, Dropbox CEO and co-founder Drew Houston, Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman, Zenefits COO David Sacks, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck and Berggruen Holdings Chairman Nicolas Berggruen have all contributed to the Series B funding round.

HackerOne's total funding to date has reached $34 million.

Jon Sakoda, general partner at NEA, has also now joined HackerOne's board of directors. The executive commented:

"HackerOne has built an incredible platform that connects organizations with thousands of hackers worldwide to help defend enterprise and governments. Embracing the hacker community is one of the most promising opportunities in security, and I am thrilled to be part of HackerOne's continued growth and development."

Merijn Terheggen, co-founder and CEO of HackerOne said the funding will bring the company "one step closer" to providing a safer Internet through a "world-class vulnerability management program."

In March, Adobe launched a vulnerability disclosure scheme -- a bug bounty of sorts without the financial reward -- for security researchers willing to disclose Flash vulnerabilities. DropBox followed suit a month after, but has taken the route many other tech giants are beginning to travel by offering cash rewards to security experts.