A decade ago, Marc Andreessen declared software was eating the world. And he was right. Name something we do that isn’t powered by software today – from the phones in our hands to the gas in our cars, and the meat on our tables. So, what’s next in our software-powered world? Application Security.

For all these same reasons, application security will have the same impact on the security World. Those companies that understand application security as a strategic value-add in their software development will gain a competitive advantage not only through brand reputation, but top and bottom-line efficiencies. The efficacy of value-chains will live and die by the trust partners have in each other’s application security.

Good application security is not about building walls through code, but ensuring software is always ready to deliver on a company’s promise to the customer. This means security and development professionals alike must change their view on security to understand that security is driven by how we build the application itself. 

How did we get here?

When Wabbi was founded, we had a unique insight that was ahead of the “DevSecOps” market of the time: security needed a way to embrace the imperfection of the applications they secure. Too much focus had been placed on speed instead of efficiency, trying to find ways to merge Security into the middle of DevOps, instead of integrating it. So much like a rotary (or roundabout as everybody outside of Massachusetts calls it), it just ends up with a lot of people trying to merge, not knowing where to look or when to go. At best there’s a bottleneck. At worst, there’s a wreck – and nobody’s happy with any outcome.

We knew we needed to find a way to empower Development teams who are driving the day-to-day delivery of the code to manage security in their existing flows, while Security could set the “rules-of-the-road” without having to be a traffic cop.  As one Fortune 1000 FinServ CISO told us early: “Build me a platform where I can set the rules, and then hand it over to Development. And then, when something goes wrong, tell me where I need to be.  If you give me that, I’ll support Development in buying it.”  This became the foundational principle around which the Wabbi platform was and continues to be developed.

Wait, Security should be DEVELOPMENT’S responsibility?

There is no such thing as perfect code, so why were we asking application security to be perfect? In fact, that is where Wabbi’s name comes from – the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which is focused on the acceptance of imperfection and transience in the things we create. In development this is not a new concept. Every day, educated decisions are made to ship code that aligns with the business needs, and that means deciding what is “good enough” today, and what can be fixed tomorrow. It’s time to bring security into the fold on that.

Wabbi does this seamlessly with the continuous assimilation of security into the development and operations processes, allowing project, version, and even environment specific security procedures to be deployed without sacrificing agility or velocity. We move organizations from just Application Security to Continuous Security so they can go back to eating the world through software innovation.

This is why we are so excited at Wabbi about today’s announcement of our seed round. It’s backed by leaders in this software-powered world who share our understanding that application security isn’t just about keeping the bad guys out – it’s about successfully baking it into every step of the development process, so security teams can be seen as collaborators in driving innovation and growth.

Not just an investment, a paradigm shift….in many ways.

As every founder knows, there are a lot of good investors, but the great investors are pounding the pavement as hard as you are as part of your team. So today, we’re thrilled to officially welcome to the Wabbi Team: Mendoza Ventures, with Senofer Mendoza at the helm, and Prasad Parthasarathi, Soo Jin Park, SK Kim, and Neetta Shetty who brought us into the fold at Cisco, and the additional support of Kelley Mak and the Work-Bench team, and NLA Ventures.  

As a female-founder, I am part of a group which accounts for 2.2% of all VC funding, let alone in cybersecurity, where Crunchbase shows only 378 with $4.2B in funding across 462 rounds. To put it in perspective, in the first half of 2021, there were 309 cybersecurity deals totaling $9bn.  Our investors carry a reputation investing for not just investing in the most forward-thinking enterprise software companies, but also making sure the best companies and leaders always have the space to succeed, no matter who they are.

• Mendoza Ventures, a female and Latinx founded firm, with 75% of their portfolio represented by founders from underrepresented groups;
• Cisco, who Launched their Aspire Fund in 2020 to turn words into action as part of their efforts to increase diversity across the tech ecosystem, from which we are proud to be one of their first direct investments of a female-founded company;
• Work-Bench, with #Womenterprise in their DNA, supporting women across all functions and stages of enterprise technology, and even maintains the ultimate list of “Enterprise founders (who are women)”; and
• NLA Ventures, a powerhouse team of women working to support and elevate the current generation of female-founders solving tough problems.

To have an investor team that shares not only a belief in Wabbi, but a passion for our vision and mission, amplifies our ability to enable organizations to bridge the gap between security and development to secure our software-powered world. So, a big welcome to our newest team members, and if you’re not part of #TeamWabbi yet, as an employee, customer, or investor, we look forward to welcoming you as well soon.

Brittany

Good application security is not about building walls through code, but ensuring software is always ready to deliver on a company’s promise to the customer. Security and development professionals must change their view on security to understand that security is driven by how we build the application itself.

Brittany Greenfield, Founder & CEO, Wabbi