Fivecast secures $30 million for its AI web monitoring aimed at national security

Adelaide-based AI startup, Fivecast, has just secured $30 million in Series A for its cybersecurity analysis platform. Similar to any group chat with The Girls, it trawls the web for information in an alarmingly efficient manner. The only real difference is its use of AI and Machine Learning (ML) and the targets usually being of national importance, rather than your latest Bumble match.

The round was led by Ten Eleven — a cybersecurity-focused VC that counts Malcolm Turnbull amongst its advisors.

It is joined by the CSIRO’s VC arm, Main Sequence, as well as the South Australian Venture Capital Fund. Both funds contributed to a $4 million raise by the company back in 2019.

Founded in 2017, Fivecast’s platform utilises AI and ML to scrape and analyse information publicly available online. It can do this across the public web and social media, and it also offers open-source dark web monitoring. It then filters that information for an agency — such as law enforcement or national intelligence or even a company.

They are then able to use this information to identify threats and mitigate security incidents. According to the company its platform has been used to assist in political extremism cases as well as money laundering cases and crypto scams.

The sheer volume and the time that it takes to filter through information online is the problem that Fivecast is looking to solve for governments, organisations and businesses.

“An increasingly complex and growing threat landscape combined with the sheer volume of data available online make it extremely difficult for intelligence personnel to collect, filter and analyse data in a timely way,”” said Dr Brenton Cooper, CEO and co-founder of Fivecast.

“Our platform enables customers to fight the proliferation of threats, pierce through sophisticated online landscapes, and speed up investigations to protect global communities and organisations.”

Since its last raise, the company also branched out into analytics tools that could look at social media, forums and chat rooms for early signs of potentially dangerous radicalism.

“Since our founding in 2017, we have enabled government agencies and corporations to identify threats, reduce risks and mitigate incidents across a diverse range of use cases — from divisive US politics influencing violent extremism and China’s influence in the South Pacific.”

Fivecast’s aims for the fresh round of funding remain similar to its last raise — further expansion into key Five Eyes markets such as the US and UK, as well as Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It is also looking to add to its headcount and build out further platform capabilities across defence, border security and law enforcement, as well as push further into corporation and financial security.