Columbia cybersecurity firm announces $3.5 million in funding

Bandura Systems, a four-year-old cybersecurity firm based in Columbia and St. Louis, on Wednesday announced an initial round of funding of $3.5 million.

Bandura helped pioneer the concept of “threat intelligence gateways,” systems that block threats to computer networks and improve the performance of existing firewalls. The funding will be used to help meet growing demand for the company’s product, PoliWall TIG, which the company says can block up to 90 percent of network and domain attacks and help stop data losses.

Investors in the seed funding round include Blu Ventures, a venture capital company based in Tysons Corner, Va.; cybersecurity investment fund Gula Tech Adventures; the Maryland Technology Development Corp., or TEDCO; Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (PWE), a nonprofit that trains and mentors women entrepreneurs; Six Thirty, a global financial technology seed fund; SixThirty Cyber; and UMB Financial Corp., a financial services company.

“The cybersecurity market has been heavily focused on identifying ‘advanced’ threats, but that has put pressure on security teams to effectively and efficiently block the huge volume of known dangers,” Bandura CEO Chris Fedde said in the company’s announcement Wednesday. “Threat intelligence gateways fill this role by addressing a key gap in existing security controls.”

Bandura also announced it has expanded its executive team. It hired Fedde, a cybersecurity executive, as its new CEO and Todd Weller as chief strategy officer. Weller had worked as a vice president of corporate development and marketing at Hexis Cyber Solutions Inc. and as a Wall Street analyst covering cybersecurity.

Bandura was founded in 2014. The company said Wednesday it is reorganizing its headquarters, housing the business operations in Columbia and the engineering staff in St. Louis.