Lawrence cybersecurity startup raises $1.85M pre-seed round led by KC’s Flyover Capital

A startup focused on detecting hidden malware and preventing costly ransomware attacks announced a power-packed pre-seed funding round to push its pending launch — with the backing of a trio of high-profile regional investors.

The investment in cybersecurity pioneer Invary was led by Flyover Capital, with additional participation from NetWork Kansas GROWKS Equity program, and the KU Innovation Park.

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Jason Rogers, Invary

“We are thrilled to have secured this pre-seed funding, as it validates the need for Invary’s novel technology to shore up existing cyber defenses against high impact hidden threats,” said Jason Rogers, CEO of Invary. “With the support of our investors, customers and partners, we are well-positioned to advance our mission of fortifying the security ecosystem by reinforcing Zero Trust principles.”

Zero Trust refers to the concept of cybersecurity architecture built to “trust nothing. A primary flaw within many company’s cybersecurity defense layers stems from their assumption that the operating system remains uncompromised, according to Invary. Its solution plugs this security gap at runtime by mandating continuous validation of the operating system.

The pre-seed funding round is expected to fuel the launch of Invary’s flagship Runtime Integrity offering, designed to uncover and neutralize hidden threats that elude modern threat detection systems. The service debuts this summer, and is set to empower organizations to fortify their security postures and proactively safeguard their digital environment against high impact attacks, the company said.

Additionally, Invary’s free Runtime Integrity Score (RISe) service is available now, allowing customers to spot-check their system’s integrity and identify hidden malware.

Wes Peck, Invary

“Ensuring the safety of our customers and cyber community is our No. 1 priority,” said Dr. Wesley Peck, CTO of Invary. “Our pre-seed funding enables us to realize this dedication by continuously improving Invary’s Runtime Integrity Service while also making our agent open source. We’re proud to enhance operating system security for all by accelarating the industry’s progress toward truly comprehensive Zero Trust Architectures.”

The company is spearheaded by Rogers, who has extensive experience building secure cloud-scale platforms, and scaling engineering and operations at category leader Matterport through IPO. The team’s security credentials are further bolstered by founder Dr. Perry Alexander, an authority in Trusted Computing research and his protege and former student, Peck, who obtained his PhD under Alexander’s guidance. 

The successful completion of the pre-seed funding round underscores Invary’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of Runtime Security, the startup said.

“With this significant investment, Invary is poised to accelerate its growth, enhance its technology and expand its reach in preventing data breaches and ransomware attacks,” Invary said in a press release.

A fellow startup in Kansas City, Tenfold Security, already is on board with the service.

“Invary Runtime Integrity gives us an unfair advantage over the competition when deployed with our security solutions for cloud and virtual machines,” said Jon Broek, CEO of the Crossroads-based cloud security services company. “It also provides a key component of keeping our customers secured end to end and preventing things like ransomware that are highly targeting our core customers in higher education.” 

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