Expanse, a cybersecurity startup that indexes IP addresses, raised $70m from private investors to help governments and large corporations monitor devices across the internet and buffer their businesses from bad guys.
Cybersecurity is so hot right now (the industry is expected to hit $300B by 2024), with many firms branching out from large tech companies. But Expanse traces back to a less common origin.
From the CIA to CVS
Expanse founder Tim Junio worked for the CIA and the secretary of defense before meeting co-founder Matt Kraning at DARPA, the US defense agency that incubates technology projects (like the friggin internet, for example).
When the company (which was originally called Qadium) initially launched, it was basically an independent cybersecurity research lab funded by millions of dollars worth of DARPA grants.
But by 2017 the military R&D lab was attracting interest from dozens of private, Fortune 100 giants like CVS. You know what that means — time for a rebrand. Enter: Expanse.
The ol’ Expanse dance
Like Palantir, Peter Thiel’s big data analytics company, Expanse is one of a growing number of private startups that power America’s most important government agencies and its biggest businesses (Thiel’s Founder’s Fund is a major investor in Expanse).
Expanse’s private clients include Thiel-founded PayPal, pharma behemoth Allergan, and legal giant Orrick. Expanse also has contracts with the Department of Defense, the Army, and the Navy.
Just last year, Expanse won a $37m contract from the Department of Defense to build out technology for the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.
