Google Ventures Joins Shape Security Series A Funding Round


MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 2, 2012) - Shape Security, a startup developing new web security technology, announced today that Google Ventures has joined its Series A funding round. Announced in April, Shape's Series A round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's TomorrowVentures. Additional participants also include Baseline Ventures, former partners at Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, and top executives from Dropbox, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

"We're in a unique position to see the threat of botnet attacks on a truly global scale, and it's far greater than most people realize," said Karim Faris, partner at Google Ventures. "With Shape's technology, major web and social media properties will be able to protect their sites and users from automated attacks in new and innovative ways. Shape's approach will make building and running botnets onerous and cost-prohibitive for attackers, completely changing the dynamic of web security."

"We are very excited to open our Series A to include Google Ventures. Their ability to assist us with recruiting top engineering talent and product design insights during this critical stage of our growth will be extremely valuable," said Derek Smith, CEO of Shape Security. 

The company also announced that it has expanded its executive team to add former Google 'click fraud czar,' Shuman Ghosemajumder, to drive marketing, strategy and business development. Co-founder Sumit Agarwal also spent 7.5 years at Google, where he was the Head of Mobile Product Management for North America. Eric Schmidt's TomorrowVentures and other former Google executives Deep Nishar (now at LinkedIn), Gokul Rajaram (now at Facebook) and Ramsey Homsany (now at Dropbox) are also investors in the company.

About Google Ventures
Google Ventures provides seed, venture and growth stage funding to the most innovative and promising entrepreneurs across a variety of stages. Founded in 2009, Google Ventures helps its entrepreneurs succeed by providing access to uniquely hands-on and dedicated resources such as its Design Studio, Marketing, Recruiting, and Engineering Teams, and Startup Lab. The Google Ventures team has extensive entrepreneurial experience, deep technical knowledge and expertise in building high growth, scalable products and companies. Among its 100+ investments are Nest, Kabam, HomeAway, SCVNGR, ngmoco, Airtime and WhaleShark Media. Google Ventures is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. with offices in Cambridge, Mass., Seattle, Wash. and New York, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.googleventures.com.

About Shape Security
Based in Mountain View, CA, Shape Security is a startup developing a new category of web defense products. Shape's founders come from Google, the Department of Defense and major defense contractors. The company's patent-pending technology will provide customers with a fundamentally different approach to protecting e-commerce and social network websites. Shape Security is hiring world-class engineers. Visit shapesecurity.com to learn more.

Contact Information:

Media Contact
Katherine Nellums for Shape Security
415.432.2451