Last Updated on October 23, 2023 by Bitfinsider

With $33 million in funding, Blockaid, a web3 security firm co-founded by two former Israeli military cyber intelligence professionals, has emerged from stealth.

According to Ido Ben-Natan, co-founder and CEO of Blockaid, the investment came in two phases totaling $27 million and $6 million. According to Ben-Natan, investors in the seed round include Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and Cyberstarts. All three investors, as well as Ribbit Capital and Variant, who also co-led the deal, took part in the Series A round.

In September 2022, Raz Niv and Ben-Natan, a former coworker, launched Blockaid. Both have prior employment at the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and the cyber security research and development team of section 8200, the Israeli military’s cyber intelligence section.

According to Ben-Natan, Blockaid’s Series A closed less than a year after the seed round, which ended in late 2022. Regarding the round’s structure, valuation, and whether any of the investors have joined Blockaid’s board of directors, he chose not to comment.

The announcement coincides with an ongoing battle between Israel and the militant Palestinian organization Hamas. More than 1,000 Israelis were hurt in a surprise strike by Hamas earlier this month, which was unprecedented.

What exactly is Blockaid?

Blockaid provides web3 security tools to assist stop breaches, phishing, and cryptocurrency fraud. In contrast to rival platforms like CertiK and Cyvers, Blockaid claimed to be the only one that can completely investigate off-chain signatures (EIP-712s) as well as on-chain transactions.

“We simulate and validate blockchain transactions before they are executed,” said Ben-Natan. “All user interactions on any dApp are fully simulated by our dApp [decentralized application] Scanning Engine. This is accomplished using our dApp Scanning Sandbox, which verifies whether the interactions and the dApp are harmful, the speaker continued.

According to Ben-Natan, Blockaid has scanned more than 450 million transactions, stopping over 1.3 million attacks, safeguarding over $7.1 billion in assets, and averting losses of more than $500 million.

Blockaid cited a recent instance in which it blocked a phishing attempt made through Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account and protected customers’ wallets while its service was in use. However, it said, the attack also affected unsecured wallets containing precious NFTs and totaling about $700,000 in assets.

MetaMask, OpenSea, Zerion Wallet, and Rainbow Wallet are a some of Blockaid’s customers. With new cash secured, the company hopes to bring on more clients. “Even in these market conditions, we have seen immense demand from new customers,” said Ben-Natan. “This funding round will enable us to continue to support our existing customers while simultaneously catering to the long list of new customers waiting to integrate Blockaid.”

Around 25 individuals work for Blockaid, which has offices in New York and Tel Aviv. Ben-Natan added that the company is seeking to expand its staff across all roles.