Mobile security startup Appknox raises $650K from SeedPlus

Bengaluru- and Singapore-based mobile security company Appknox has raised S$875,000 ($650,000 or Rs 4.35 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by SeedPlus, a new seed-stage venture capital firm backed by Jungle Ventures, Infocomm Investments, Accel Partners and RNT Associates.

The startup has used the capital to launch its cloud-based mobile security solution for businesses in Southeast Asia, it said in a statement.

Appknox launched its solution last year, starting with India, and is working with a number of e-commerce and payments companies such as Paytm, Times Internet Ltd, BigBasket and CitrusPay in India, and Redmart and HOOQ in Singapore where the solution was launched two weeks ago.

The startup helps businesses run security analyses on cloud-based emulation engines without having to share any source code. It enables businesses conduct regular security audits, know security loopholes in their apps and fix them with the suggestions it provides.

Owned and operated by XYSec Labs Pte. Ltd., Appknox was founded by Harshit Agarwal, Subho Halder and Prateek Panda in 2014. Agarwal ran two startups–Coupov and Shopperson–in the past while Halder worked with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and founded WWDoubleu Webdesigning. Panda was associated with GenCrowd and co-founded two startups–Achillean and TheTechPanda–previously.

Appknox is also an alumnus of JFDI Asia and Microsoft Accelerator.

"Given the explosive growth in mobile apps and smartphone users globally, security will only be more important as the next billion smartphone users get online. Appknox is well poised to tap on this huge opportunity," said Tiang Lim Foo, operating partner at SeedPlus.

Foo will be joining the company's board.

Singapore-based Jungle Ventures joined hands with Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata's personal investment vehicle RNT Associates, Accel Partners India and Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd to float SeedPlus in the city-state in June.

The fund is run by three operating partners who have recently joined Jungle Ventures—Michael Smith, who was CTO at streaming service HOOQ, former Spotify product manager Gabriel Lundberg and Tiang Lim Foo, who was previously with Evernote.

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