Hypernative deals in crypto security

Hypernative , a cryptocurrency-focused startup, has raised $9 million in seed funding as it comes out of stealth, co-founder and CEO Gal Sagi exclusively told TechCrunch.

The funding round was led by boldstart ventures and tech fund IBI with strategic investments from Blockdaemon, Alchemy, Borderless, CMT Digital, Nexo and angel investors. The company was founded by Segi and Dan Caspi, who are also Hypernative's CTO. The co-founders have combined experience in cloud infrastructure, building large-scale distributed systems and security, and have worked at places like IBM, Google and Microsoft.

"We created Hypernative early last year when we saw huge amounts of money being stolen, phished or scammed in cryptocurrency," Sagi said. "We saw huge gaps between existing tools and the money invested, so we wanted to create something that would help prevent [attacks]."

In September, the team launched its first product, Pre-Cog, a platform that monitors on- and off-chain data sources to predict threats before they occur. According to Sagi, it has helped users save "tens of millions" of dollars since its launch.

According to Sagi, the startup focuses on "early building detection" and manually plugging its tools into customers' workflows. Its ideal client base ranges from asset managers, hedge funds, traders and market makers who interact with cryptocurrency to blockchains and protocols, he added.

"We do detection in advance," Sagi noted. "Many incidents alerted [users] minutes or hours before the attack, so we helped prevent attacks with alerts."

Going forward, Hypernative aims to build prevention workflows that create "end-to-end systems that reduce risk without doing anything," Sagi added.

Even though cryptocurrency markets are falling, billions of dollars are still invested in the space, making it a target for attacks by those looking to make (and get) a quick buck. According to the Immunefi Crypto Losses 2022 report, the majority of losses in 2022, or $3.77 billion, were caused by hacking attacks, with 134 specific incidents.

Every quarter last year saw multiple multimillion-dollar losses, some bigger than others. The fourth quarter of 2022 saw the most losses at $1.62 billion due to 55 incidents, nearly half of the year's total losses, the report said.

"In my experience, hackers don't sleep," Segi said. "They don't care if it's a bull market or a bear market. Where there is money and opportunities, they go."

The crypto industry needs more tools to prevent breaches before they happen, so "there's a big opportunity" to improve the space, Sagi said.

"Hackers enjoy when there's risk and volatility in the market, and they take advantage of that," he added. "It's a problem we have to solve."
Author: GEximius