IDG Ventures India invests $2.5 mn in IIT-K Alumni

Bangalore, Jan 3: IDG Ventures India, a $150 Million early-stage technology venture capital fund, announced its investment of $ 2.5 million in iViZ, an innovative network security startup in the Security and Vulnerability Management market with the world's first Automated and On Demand Penetration Testing product. Kolkata based iViZ is addressing a global market which is currently over $10 billion in size and growing annually at over 18 pc. Interestingly, losses due to identity theft in USA alone touched an annual $ 48 billion recently.

"It is our privilege to support iViZ founded by Mr. Bikash Barai and Mr. Nilanjan De. This investment is based on our thrust of investing in disruptive software product firms out of India with a potential to scale globally. Security is a key market for us. iViZ has built a highly committed and innovative team whose first product has already generated significant market traction and is well positioned to be a leader worldwide," said Mr. Sudhir Sethi, Chairman and Managing Director, IDG Ventures India.

iViZ received recognition as being amongst Asia's Top 5 Security Startups in the Global Security Challenge held by London Business School in September 2007. The company plans to utilize the investment to build its sales team in North America, Europe, Middle East/APAC and India and to significantly enhance its product development initiatives.

"Our vision is to be a global leader in the Security and Vulnerability Management market with Automated Penetration Testing and Security Risk Management as our first offering. We partnered IDG Ventures for the global IDG Platform and the strategic help that iViZ will derive in realizing its vision from the presence of investor nominees Mr. Sudhir Sethi and Mr. Hemir Doshi on the Board" said Mr. Bikash Barai, co-founder and CEO of iViZ.

"We have used Artificial Intelligence techniques and simulation of next generation hacking techniques to build the product" said Mr. Nilanjan De, the co-founder and CTO of iViZ, "Unlike current Penetration Testing process which is manual and non comprehensive our product can detect vulnerabilities and also its corresponding remedies in a completely automated way".

Mr. Sudhir Sethi and Mr. Hemir Doshi will join the Board of Directors at iViZ representing IDG Ventures India. Mr. Sudhir Sethi has over 25 years of operating, investment and Board experience and is credited with seed funding Mindtree Consulting. Mr. Hemir Doshi, focuses on software products and services as Investment Advisor at IDG Ventures India and has prior risk management and strategy consulting experience.

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