Five Finalists Will Receive Messaging and Go-To-Market Coaching Before Presenting to an Expert Panel of Judges and an Audience of Prospective Investors and Customers
Fulton, Md., Oct. 22, 2024 — DataTribe, a global cyber foundry that invests in and co-builds next-generation cybersecurity and data science companies, today announced five finalists for the 2024 DataTribe Challenge.
The finalists will share $25,000 in prize money and work with DataTribe principals and other cybersecurity entrepreneurs to hone and develop their messaging and presentations for a live event in front of a panel of judges, potential investors, customers, and other cyber startups on November 13th in Fulton, Maryland.
“These five finalists were selected because of the innovative and forward-thinking technologies they are developing to address some of the most critical technological and security challenges of the future such as deepfakes, identity verification in the age of artificial intelligence, data quality, and enterprise security,” said John Funge, DataTribe Managing Director. “DataTribe’s experienced team of startup coaches is excited to conduct strategy workshops with each finalist as they prepare for their live presentations. This personalized instruction will provide these startups with insights into DataTribe’s seed-to-A playbook and better equip them to connect with potential investors and customers as they grow.”
Each of the finalists is pre-Series A and has not received funding in excess of $1.2 million to date. They also have an Enterprise, Big Data or Cyber Security product, beta, market viable product or concept to present.
The Seventh Annual DataTribe Challenge Finalists are:
DataMonstr – Based in Austin, TX, DataMonstr provides complete protection to the development environment, both at developer endpoints and the source code repository level, allowing insights and proactive security to the highest risk machines in the enterprise without having to sacrifice the productivity of your engineering group.
ForceField – Based in New Jersey, ForceField offers a system that verifies the authenticity of recorded media such as photos, videos, and audio to establish a clear chain of custody and protect provenance. Their goal is to reduce fraudulent manipulation of media in areas like insurance claims.
Frenos – Based in Charlotte, NC, Frenos offers a zero-impact, continuous security assessment platform specifically designed for operational technology environments where performing attack simulations and penetration testing on live systems is not feasible.
Validia – Based in San Francisco, Validia provides real-time identity verification addressing the critical vulnerability of sophisticated impersonation threats, particularly deepfakes, in remote work environments. Validia’s approach enables seamless, continuous identity authentication across all digital interactions without compromising user experience or privacy and eliminates the frustrating user experience of constant MFA prompts and codes.
Zectonal – Based in the Washington, DC metropolitan region, Zectonal is an easy-to-install service that uses AI agents to monitor and identify data quality issues in enterprise data pipelines.
The in-person competition will take place in the DataTribe Challenge Auditorium in Maple Lawn, Maryland, on November 13th. An expert panel of leaders in the cybersecurity field will judge each Finalist’s presentation. These judges include:
- Bob Ackerman, Founder of AllegisCyber and Co-Founder of DataTribe
- George Barnes, Partner at Red Cell and Former Deputy Director of NSA
- Betsy Bevilacqua, Co-founder of Tabiri Analytics and Former CISO of Chainalysis & Butterfly Network
- Arno Van Der Walt, CISO of Marriott International
- Ron Gula, Co-founder of Gula Tech Adventures and Tenable
About DataTribeDataTribe is a startup foundry that invests in and co-builds world-class startups focused on generational leaps in cybersecurity and data science. Founded by leading investors, startup veterans, and alumni of the U.S. intelligence community, DataTribe commits capital, in-kind services, access to an unparalleled network, and decades of professional expertise to give their companies an unfair advantage. DataTribe is headquartered in the Washington-Baltimore metro area in Fulton, Maryland. For more information, visit https://datatribe.com.
