Renault, Volvo and Hyundai Invested in Upstream Security

22 October, 2019

Upstream has completed a $30 million funding round. Its Security C4 Solution provides a comprehensive cloud based cyber protection for fleets and individual vehicles

Photo above: Upstream’s Co-founders Yoav Levy (Left) and Yonatan Appel

Upstream Security from Herzliya, Israel, announced the completion of a $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $41 million. The round was led by Renault Venture Capital and included Volvo Group Venture Capital, Hyundai, Hyundai AutoEver, Nationwide Ventures and others. Original Upstream investors Charles River Ventures, Glilot Capital and Maniv Mobility all participated in the round.

The company’s Upstream Security C4 (Centralized Connected Car Cybersecurity Security) Platform is a purpose-built solution for protecting connected vehicles. C4 is deployed in the Automotive Cloud; in the demarcation point between the operational network and the IT network, ensuring protection of the communication data between the vehicles and command and control servers. Upstream system analyze the communications between data centers and fleets in order to detect, interpret and alert in real-time of any threats to the fleet.

Nobody is Safe

“This first of its kind investor syndicate, is a testament to the severity of the problem the industry is tackling,” said Yoav Levy, Upstream Security Co-founder and CEO. Earlier this year a report published by Upstream Security outlining the automotive threat landscape spanning the past decade, showing that OEM vehicle manufacturers and commercial and public sector fleets have been targeted. In many cases attacks were executed indirectly via connected services and applications and from long distance.

Establishing a security framework for connected cars entails a multi-layer approach that secures both the vehicles and the infrastructure connecting them. Upstream C4 platform enables OEM car manufacturers and fleets to detect, monitor and respond to attacks targeting any part of the connected vehicle framework – even for vehicles already on the road.

2 Million Protected Cars

“Securing our customers’ connected vehicles is always top of mind for Volvo,” noted David Hanngren, Investment Director at Volvo Group. “We have chosen to invest in Upstream because they have a great vision for addressing this unique sector and serious depth in both automotive domain expertise and cybersecurity.”

The CEO Yoav Levy revealed in the company’s blog, that over the last year the company haz dedicated extensive efforts in growing its partner network with MSSPs (Managed Security Service Providers), suppliers and OEMs. “Our platform is already ingesting data of over 2 million vehicles.”

Upstream was established in 2017 by the CEO Yoav Levy and the CTO Yonatan Appel. Yoav brings over 17 years of experience in multi-national high-tech companies and start-ups in leading vendors such as Check Point, Juniper Networks and Broadcom. Yonatan is involved with technology development for the last 20 years in industry-leading companies such as Check Point, Imperva, Microsoft and in in an elite technological unit in the IDF Intelligence Corps.

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Posted in: Automotive , Cyber , Deals and Investments , News

Posted in tags: Cyber , Hyundai , Renault , Volvo