BotGuard OÜ, an Estonia-founded cybersecurity software company that helps web hosting providers control traffic and protect their infrastructure from malicious threats, has secured a €12 million Series A funding round led by MMC Ventures. Existing investors Tera Ventures and Expeditions Fund also participated in the round, alongside prominent angel investors including Stefan Lindeberg. This latest investment will enable the business to further develop its technology, recruit tech development talent, and expand its sales and marketing teams as it continues to scale globally.
Nearly half of all internet traffic comes from bots, exposing website owners to threats such as data theft, scams, and DDoS attacks. Good bots exist everywhere: every payment system, CMS, or social tool uses ‘good bots’. When used for good, bots can benefit a company by crawling and indexing a website to improve search engine results. However, bad bot traffic can be harmful to operations and drive up costs. BotGuard OÜ has developed an easy-to-implement, state-of-the-art cloud-based solution, partnering with hosting providers to help website owners filter their web traffic, lower website management costs, defend their infrastructure, and protect their assets. Using AI and other innovative technologies to automate the implementation process and reduce costs, the startup provides effective, manageable, platform-agnostic web security for organisations of all sizes.
Nik Rozenberg, CEO and co-founder at Botguard OÜ, said, “Every business should have effective web traffic management, yet there are no affordable solutions focused on the SME segment due to complicated and expensive onboarding processes. Malicious bot traffic can be extremely harmful for businesses – particularly for the likes of e-commerce retailers that depend on their website to operate – and organisations require tools that keep pace with the rapidly-evolving threat landscape. Even neutral web traffic – like some crawler bots – can drive up management costs. We are democratising web security by offering web hosting providers a flexible, easy-to-use, and cost-effective solution that still offers the highest level of control over web traffic. We are excited for this next stage of our growth journey as we continue to innovate and expand into new territories.”
BotGuard OÜ was founded in Estonia in 2019 by engineers Nik Rozenberg, CEO, and Denis Prochko, CTO. Born out of the co-founders’ experience leading and growing startups and battling malicious bots and hackers on their own websites, BotGuard OÜ now operates globally with clients and partners in more than 30 countries. The company’s executive team includes industry veterans such as CRO Bertil Brendeke (ex-CloudFest, Acronis), COO Martin Pawliczek (ex-GoDaddy, Host Europe Group), CPO Jason Haworth (ex-AWS, F5 Networks), CMO Renee Stromberg (ex-Cisco, F5 Networks) and CDS Cagri Ozcinar (ex-Samsung, Sky Group).
Mina Samaan, Partner at MMC Ventures, added, “Born from the pain of living through this problem, Nik and Denis have built an impressive business, and the incredible traction BotGuard OÜ has seen to date demonstrates how well they understand this problem. As generative AI makes the malicious threats businesses are facing even more sophisticated, the BotGuard team has its own AI-powered solution – effectively fighting AI with AI. We share their vision in growing together to build a secure internet that is accessible to everyone.”
Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, commented, “There is an addressable market of over 300 million websites that require the level of protection Botguard OÜ can provide. By partnering with web hosting providers, the business has achieved an economy of scale to SME websites. The company is putting hosting providers in the driver’s seat, providing them with a straightforward and robust solution which protects against myriad web threats and offers complete control over web traffic. We look forward to offering the team our continued support as they scale the business globally.”
