Symbiotic Security Secures $3 Million Seed Round to Reinvent Developer Training
Symbiotic Security has announced the closing of a $3 million seed round, aiming to revolutionize how developers approach security vulnerabilities during the coding process. Unlike existing solutions, Symbiotic Security not only identifies potential security issues in real-time but also equips developers with the skills to prevent these bugs preemptively, ultimately accelerating the development cycle.
A New Era of Security for Developers
Launched earlier this year, Symbiotic Security introduced its minimum viable product (MVP) just a month ago, focusing primarily on infrastructure-as-code languages, such as Terraform. Jerome Robert, the company’s co-founder and CEO, explained that this strategy allowed them to prove their vision effectively and expediently.
While numerous security tools are available, Robert emphasizes a critical distinction in Symbiotic’s approach. "Even the most developer-friendly security tools are still, at their core, tools for the security teams. They are not designed to empower developers to become the ‘good guys’ but rather enable security teams to function as ‘better cops,’" Robert said. This traditional approach often leaves developers juggling security concerns against their need to create and deploy new features.
Bridging the Gap: Real-Time Training
Symbiotic Security aims to bridge this gap by integrating education into the development workflow. By providing real-time feedback and training, the company encourages developers to address security bugs as they write code—before reaching the continuous integration and delivery phases that often impede the development process with delays and additional reviews.
"The training is on the spot and relatable, focused on immediate needs rather than abstract concepts," Robert explained. Currently, the training materials consist of pre-recorded lessons, but the ambition lies in evolving these offerings into more dynamic, AI-driven solutions that cater to the specific vulnerabilities a developer encounters while coding.
Building a Foundation for the Future
As part of its long-term vision, Symbiotic Security plans to expand its capabilities beyond infrastructure-as-code languages to mainstream programming languages like Python and JavaScript. Furthermore, Robert noted an intriguing possibility: "To build an effective model that can automatically fix security issues, you need a corpus of code with both security bugs and their corrected versions. Since we see issues in real-time and can guide developers on resolutions, we could develop a high-quality dataset for this remediation model over time."
Strong Backing Supports Ambition
Backed by notable investors, including Lerer Hippeau, Axeleo Capital, and Factorial Capital, the company’s vision for shifting left in security has garnered attention within the industry. Graham Brown, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau, praised the leadership team’s understanding of traditional code security challenges: "Jerome and co-founder Edouard Viot have demonstrated remarkable foresight with their approach to addressing the growing demand for shift-left security solutions."
Impact on the Tech Industry
The implications of Symbiotic Security’s technology extend beyond just developers. By making security training more relevant and less cumbersome, organizations could see a decrease in the frequency of critical security vulnerabilities making it into production. This shift could ultimately lead to a more secure digital landscape and faster deployment cycles, benefiting both tech companies and their end-users.
As the technology landscape continues to evolve, Symbiotic’s approach may set new standards for developer training and security practices, reshaping how security is integrated into software development processes.
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