Black Kite Raises $22M to Meet Aggressive Demand for Vendor Risk Management

BOSTON  – Oct 13, 2021

Black Kite, the standard in third-party cyber risk ratings, announced today a $22 million Series B investment led by Volition Capital, with participation from existing investors Moore Strategic Ventures, LLC (MSV), Glasswing Ventures, and Data Point Capital. Since 2019, Black Kite has secured more than $33.1 million in venture capital investments, fueling momentum and increasing market penetration.

Digital supply chains are growing at an annual rate of 11.2% and are forecasted to double in size by 2026. Black Kite’s intelligence platform quickly and cost-effectively provides intelligence into third parties and supply chains, prioritizing findings into a simplified dashboard that risk management teams can easily consume and close critical security gaps.

Black Kite’s patented platform and global data lake offers cyber risk assessments and quantification for more than 34 million entities in minutes. The technology’s standards-based methodology calculates and quantifies findings, illuminating high priority third-parties, reducing the uncertainty around cyber risk as a whole.

The $22M capital will allow Black Kite to expand investment in marketing, customer success, channels, and strategic partnerships. Over the last year, Black Kite has more than doubled its customer base and employee headcount. Additional cyber risk management innovations, such as third-party risk quantification using Open FAIR™ and the first-ever ransomware predictability tool (Ransomware Susceptibility Index^TM), have fueled the company’s explosive growth.

“The Volition team is a roll-up-the-sleeves group that has a great reputation for partnering with founding management teams and playing to win,” said Paul Paget, CEO of Black Kite. “Ransomware risk to supply chains and critical infrastructure providers can only be mitigated through a clear and real-time view of threats and vulnerabilities across organizations and their trading partners.”

The greater Boston area, a global hub for cybersecurity talent and technology, houses Black Kite and Volition headquarters. Due to rapid employee growth, Black Kite recently expanded their headquarter office into the Prudential Center, with continued plans for rapid Boston-based employee growth.

“Third-party cyber risk management is a persistent and growing concern for organizations across all industries, and solutions that most effectively mitigate these risks have significant growth potential,” said Sean Cantwell, Managing Partner at Volition Capital. “Black Kite’s unique standards-based approach to supply chain risk assessment coupled with a strong management team has enabled significant market growth and traction. As long-time investors in supply chain compliance and security software businesses, we believe that Black Kite is well-positioned to emerge as the category-leading third-party cyber risk platform.”