Forefront: August 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of Forefront: a monthly digest of the latest news and insights from Forgepoint Capital's community at the forefront of cybersecurity, AI, and infrastructure software innovation.  

Read on to explore moments from the past month including our investment to “double down” on 1Kosmos , welcoming new Forgepoint Advisory Council Member Rob Harrison , new insights and updates from the Forgepoint team, what the #forgepointfamily was up to at Black Hat USA 2025, and exciting new breakthroughs across our portfolio.  

Subscribe to this newsletter and stay in the know. 

Black Hat USA 2025 Recap

Black Hat USA 2025 is in the books! Our team had an amazing time meeting with entrepreneurs, cybersecurity leaders, investors, advisors, and supporters across the Forgepoint community. Thank you to everyone who attended our Executive Security Brunch cohosted alongside Foundation Capital  and our 10th Annual Black Hat CISO Dinner cohosted with SVB and IQT - and congratulations to our companies for another great show!   

Miss Black Hat USA 2025? Meet the innovators from the Forgepoint portfolio who attended. 

1Kosmos: $57M Series B Funding Round

1Kosmos , market leaders in digital identity security, announced $57M in Series B funding led by Forgepoint Capital , Oquirrh Ventures , and Origami Capital Partners with participation from Craig Abod , Founder and President of Carahsoft , NextEra Energy, Inc. Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures , and the 1Kosmos management team. Congratulations to Hemen R. Vimadalal and the 1Kosmos team! Forgepoint is thrilled to ‘double down’ on 1Kosmos after leading the company’s Series A round in 2021. The best is yet to come!

Read the press release, coverage in BankInfoSecurity, and Forgepoint Capital Managing Director Ernie B. 's blog post. 

New Member

Please join us in welcoming a distinguished industry leader to our Global Advisory Council:

Rob Harrison , Senior Vice President - Product Management, Sophos . Rob is a global leader in cybersecurity and product strategy with extensive board-level experience and a track record building high-growth businesses. As a senior technology and business leader at Sophos, he drives the vision and delivery of the company’s Security Operations portfolio- including the world’s largest MDR service- to protect organizations worldwide against advanced cyber threats.  

Previously, Rob was the Chief Product Officer at Capsul8 where he led product strategy and engineering execution prior to the company’s acquisition by Sophos. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Detica and BAE Systems Digital Intelligence across product management, program management, engineering, and workforce leadership. He is a long-standing member of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates where he supports entrepreneurs through their start-up and scale-up journeys.

Forgepoint named to America's Top Venture Capital Firms 2025 List

Forgepoint Capital has been named one of America’s Top Venture Capital Firms for 2025 by TIME . Review the full list of 350 VC firms at the forefront of innovation, supporting emerging startups, and driving the next generation of economic growth.

Alberto Yépez was recently appointed to the EAIGG: Ethical AI Governance Group Human AI Consortium, where he will bring his expertise as a seasoned investor, cybersecurity leader, and global voice for digital trust to the ethical AI space. The EAIGG's Human AI Consortium is an exclusive network uniting leading VC firms and enterprises across Europe and Silicon Valley to accelerate vertical and enterprise agentic AI through co-innovation, champion human-centric responsible AI practices, and ensure startups and enterprises can collaborate on real-world adoption beyond Big Tech dominance.

Alberto will also be speaking at the upcoming Digi Americas LATAM CISO Summit 2025 on September 11. The summit is an exclusive gathering of top cybersecurity leaders in Latin America to explore the latest trends and strategies in securing digital assets. Learn more here.

Margin of Safety

Kathryn Shih and Jimmy Park research the practical sides of security and AI so that you don't have to. Subscribe on Substack.

Jimmy Park and Kathryn Shih released three more Margin of Safety posts:

• Margin of Safety #23: First Mover Advantages in AI Agentic Development 
• Margin of Safety #24: Black Hat 2025 
• Margin of Safety #25: Security Automation and Monocultures 

Threat Intelligence Portfolio Spotlights

Actionable intelligence from the frontlines, co-authored with the Forgepoint family of companies. Subscribe on LinkedIn.

In part 2 of our recent mini-series, Dr. Shane Shook breaks down 'paper controls' and shares valuable pro tips on compensating controls from his decades of experience in cybercrime investigations and IT risk management. Featuring insights from Craig Unger , Rita Gurevich , and Billy Gouveia along with Bishop Fox , GetReal Security , Huntress , Hyperproof , ReversingLabs , SPHERE , Surefire Cyber Inc. , and Symmetry Systems .

Huntress Celebrates Major Accolades and Welcomes Jen Easterly to Advisory Board, while CEO Kyle Hanslovan is Named a Top Disrupter

It was a month of significant milestones for Huntress . The company welcomed former CISA Director Jen Easterly to its Strategic Advisory Board to help advance its mission of protecting businesses of all sizes. Additionally, CEO Kyle Hanslovan was named one of CRN's Top 25 Technology Disrupters of 2025. Huntress also continues to receive industry-wide recognition as a market leader, securing a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, leading the CRN Annual Report Card for Security-Identity, and being named one of Evolution Equity’s Top 50 Cybersecurity Companies of 2025. Congratulations to the Huntress team on their incredible momentum!

Awards

• GetReal Security was named one of Evolution Equity’s Top 50 Cybersecurity Companies of 2025.
• Nudge Security received an honorable mention in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SaaS Management Platforms.
• Qevlar AI was recognized as a "top all-rounder" in the 2025 AI SOC Market Landscape report.
• Rafay was named a Leader and Outperformer in the 2025 GigaOm Radar Report for Managed Kubernetes.
• Synadia was named a winner in The 2025 SaaS Awards.

Breakthroughs

• Databahn.ai announced the launch of its Smart Agent for endpoint telemetry collection, designed to unify the process of collecting, processing, and routing telemetry across security and observability teams.
• Multiverse Computing was featured in a TechCrunch article for its new "Model Zoo" family of nano AI models which are some of the smallest high-performing models ever developed.
• NowSecure achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance for the fifth consecutive year, reinforcing its standing as a leading enterprise-grade mobile application security testing (MAST) platform.
• RAD Security joined NVIDIA Inception, a program that supports startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping and deployment.

Partnerships

• Bishop Fox partnered with Trusted Partner Network to make penetration testing more accessible for small and mid-sized companies.
• Constella Intelligence partnered with Osterman Research to develop a new white paper that reveals gaps in identity security maturity and the strategies to close them.
• CyberCube announced a partnership with Wholesure , a wholesale brokerage subsidiary of Acrisure, to help SMEs improve cyber insurance decision-making.

Insights

• 1Kosmos Co-Founder and CTO Rohan Pinto wrote a Forbes Technology Council article exploring what it will take to achieve consciousness in AI.
• Hyperproof released a comprehensive guide covering risk management and compliance considerations to help growing businesses select the right frameworks.
• Lumu Technologies published a blog post identifying three game-changing cybersecurity trends from DEF CON 33, including a revolutionary shift in AI-driven attacks.
• Lynx Tech Head of Product- AML Alyssa I. was featured in an episode of the FinTech Focus TV podcast where she discussed the evolving world of Anti-Money Laundering, AI-driven fraud detection, and the increasingly complex FinTech regulatory and risk landscape.
• Nudge Security released its latest Securing the Workforce Edge newsletter on moving beyond the CASB.
• ReversingLabs shared an article on how to integrate the new OWASP GenAI Incident Response Guide 1.0 into an existing security incident response playbook.
• Secure Code Warrior CTO Matias Madou explored how AI-assisted development can be exploited by attackers in an article for DevOps Digest.
• SolCyber published a blog post examining the lifespan of exploits and whether current patching strategies are fast enough to keep pace.
• Surefire Cyber Inc. released a blog analyzing the evolution of Business Email Compromise (BEC) campaigns and the use of Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) techniques.
• Symmetry Systems shared a blog post on why a foundational security approach built on the intersection of data and identity represents a paradigm shift from traditional methods.
• Uptycs detailed how it leverages eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) to deliver unparalleled, kernel-level security for Linux workloads in a recent blog.

Events

• 9/2, 12:30pm local time | Multiverse Computing is sponsoring the AMETIC Digital Economy and Telecommunications Conference. Chief Sales Officer Victor Gaspar will be speaking on a panel Defense and Technological Innovation in the Face of Current Geopolitical Challenges. Learn more here.
• 9/10, 10am PT | Synadia is hosting a webinar Financial Services Event Architectures to explore how real-time, secure, and scalable systems are redefining performance and operational simplicity across the financial services industry. Register here.
• MULTIPLE DATES | Bishop Fox will be participating in several upcoming industry events. Check their website for the latest speaking engagements and appearances.
• ON DEMAND | SPHERE hosted the latest episode of Smells Like Identity Hygiene, where JetBlue ’s Director of Identity Access Management E. Angie Woodruff shared how she built a robust IAM program. Watch the episode here.
• ON DEMAND | Symmetry Systems Chief Evangelist Claude Mandy was featured on the FinTech Impact podcast to discuss Symmetry's unique approach to data security, minimizing attack vectors, and optimizing data access. Listen to the episode here.

Looking for your next career opportunity or know someone who is? Browse or share our portfolio company job board.

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