Founded by the former CISO of Bank Leumi, Israeli web3 security company SphereX has raised $8.2 million in seed funding for its technology designed to prevent crypto hacks.
Aleph, Pillar VC, Fabric Ventures, Mensch Capital Partners and angel investors joined the round for the startup, founded by Israel Defence Forces veterans.
The company has also launched SphereX Protect, a security solution for smart contracts. SphereX claims that billions of dollars have been lost via exploited smart contracts, many of which had been previously audited and monitored by third party security firms.
Integrated into the smart contract as a security module, SphereX Protect prevents hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities in the code.
There is no need to pause the smart contract or implement circuit breakers, since it prevents the malicious activity without interfering with the normal operation of the contract. And, as an on-chain module the defense it provides is verifiable, continuous and maintains the principles of composability and anti-censorship.
Oren Fine, CTO, SphereX, says: "We are the only existing solution today that provides Dapps with what they need to win users' trust — a security solution that allows business continuity under attacks, and compliant with whatever level of decentralization they choose.
"We enable the owner of the protocol to provide a highly secure protocol and be worthy of the users' trust, knowing that they will not lose their funds nor lose access due to pause, even under attack."
SphereX is not alone in attracting VC interest. Cube3.ai, a cryptocurrency-focused security startup that protects smart contracts by blocking malicious transactions, has also emerged from stealth mode having raised $8.2 million of seed funding.