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Updated: January 28, 2020

Portland cybersecurity startup raises another $2M to fund growth

Photo of Defendify's two co-founders. Courtesy / Defendify Defendify co-founders Andrew Rinaldi, left, and Rob Simopoulos, recently raised an additional $2 million for their Portland-based cybersecurity startup.

Defendify, a Portland startup that provides cybersecurity services to small businesses, has raised another $2 million in funding for growth from the Maine Technology Institute and other investors.

The latest round was led by existing investor 3dot6 Ventures, which along with MTI also participated in a $1.6 million funding round last June. The two capital infusions boost Defendify's total to $3.6 million raised in 18 months.

New investors this time around include the Maine Venture Fund; York IE of Manchester, N.H., and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Wasabi Ventures Partners, which has invested in more than technology 200 startups since 2003. 

Defendify, founded in 2017 by Rob Simopoulos and Andrew Rinaldi, said it plans to use the $2 million to expand its core product, invest in sales and marketing and make strategic hires.

The company was featured in Mainebiz's list of 10 Maine startups to keep an eye on published in 2018. Today it employs 23 people, including two new management hires.

Simopoulos told Mainebiz the company expects to be at more than 30 employees in the next 60 days and close to 40 by the end of the year.

"Since we started the company, we're now on our fifth office," he said of the new 7,000-square-foot headquarters in Portland's West Bayside neighborhood.

"We're hiring a number of different people in sales, marketing and development," Simopolous said, "and have a lengthy road map of different improvements we want to make in the platform itself."

Asked whether there's already an exit strategy, Simopoulos said the company is assembling a board of directors "to help guide us through those processes."

He also said the company is getting unsolicited calls "from time to time" from private equity firms and other investors.

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