Cybersecurity insurance startup Coalition raises $40M in Series B funding

Coalition, a cybersecurity insurance company, has raised $40 million in its latest round of funding.

Fintech investment giant Ribbit Capital led the investment with participation from Greenoaks Capital and Hillhouse Capital.

Coalition’s insurance covers expenses incurred from liabilities related to third-parties, such as fines and penalties — as well as fraud, breach response, extortion and ransomware recovery, device replacement and more. The company also aims to give U.S.-based customers an at-a-glance look at their cybersecurity posture — from alerts, threat intelligence and advice on what to improve, such as vulnerability fixing.

With its Series B, the company said it’s planning to expand its data analytics platform used to assess a company’s security posture. The funding will also expand its engineering and incident response team.

Coalition, which declined to state its valuation, previously raised $10 million in February 2018.

Cybersecurity insurance remains a fickle area. Amid an ongoing threat of breaches and data exposures, having an insurance policy in place to get a company back on its feet is smart. But many companies previously believed to be covered by cybersecurity insurance are not. When shipping giant Maersk was knocked offline by ransomware during the NotPetya attack, incurring more than $300 million in damages, its insurer Zurich declared the Russian-backed attack was an act of war and didn’t pay out.

Even when companies do pay out, it’s not a silver bullet.

Coalition’s proactive security efforts to try to prevent data breaches — and subsequent costs — is one way to save paying up. Will that scale up to another global cyberattack? Let’s hope we never find out.

VC funding of cybersecurity companies hits record $5.3B in 2018