• Prague-based DDoS protection startup Blindspot Technologies secured a EUR 1.4M Seed round
• The startup offers a set of solutions for DDoS protection and mitigation security
• The new investment will fund the young company’s overseas expansion to North America and South-East Asia, as well as R&D effort in network automation

Czech DDoS protection and mitigation security provider Blindspot Technologies closed a sizable Seed round of EUR 1.4M. Presto Ventures – one of the Czech Republic’s most active VC funds (that invested in Magic ID recently, for instance) – led the round, other participants being the Czech IT Company Prozeta and Damir Špoljarič’s Gi21 fund.

Extensive Cybersecurity Background

David Cernak, the startup’s founder, can boast about a career in network operations that spans over 20 years and profound expertise in networking infrastructure, data center management, and cybersecurity. Since 1999, he has been at the forefront of evolving technologies in networking, data centers, and application administration – from the early days of coaxial networks to pioneering developments in cloud services. As a co-founder of CZFree.NET, Mr Cernak had a significant influence over the landscape of Internet Service Providers in the Czech Republic.

As a consultant for various operators and service providers across Europe, Mr Cernak frequently gets asked to deliver lectures on network security and emerging cybersecurity threats. He is known for his dedication to advancing network technology in the dynamic realms of cybersecurity and network operations.

‘The primary reason for DDoS solution development was to meet our own cybersecurity needs. I architected quite extensive network infrastructure that needed to be protected against DDoS attacks, and the solutions that were available on the market were not the right fit for us, for multiple reasons,’ Mr Cernak recalls.

The founder mentions statistics among other reasons that led the team. According to his data, the frequency of DDoS attacks is on the rise, as well as the overall dependence on the digital infrastructure, which is unprecedented to any point in history.

Keeping Up with the Evolution of DDoS Attacks

On the other hand, the popular on-premise solutions have very limited capacities and often cannot deal with the high volume of attacks simply because the infrastructure can’t take it. This has been proven quite a few times in the past. Mr Cernak reminds about one of the latest large-scale DDoS attacks caused significant downtime of online services of seven Czech banks (source), alongside a few more banks in neighboring countries. Many companies that stand to lose a lot during downtimes are either not protected at all, or have a very limited protection against DDoS.

‘The problem of DDoS attacks is constantly growing. It’s being supported by governments of certain countries and even though the regimes might change one day, the hacker groups won’t disappear. They will remain a weapon and a threat in today’s global digital landscape, which is defined by hybrid threats and challenges,’ Blindspot’s founder adds.

‘It’s well known that cyber attacks are increasing in intensity, volume, and sophistication. This trend will not abate. There are more and more devices connected to the Internet and with more bandwidth. The vast majority of the small subset that uses at least some form of protection is reliant on local solutions that are expensive in the first place and represent a bottleneck in terms of resilience and attack detection capacity,’ Gi21’s Damir Špoljarič agrees.

Uniqueness and Adjustability

The actual development of the solution started years ago with ‘Blindspot’ as a working title. The name stuck with Mr Cernak and his team throughout the startup’s brief history (it was founded in 2023), because they find that it very well matches what the solution actually does. In simple terms, it makes something invisible or moves it away from its intended target.

More specifically, if a customer gets attacked, all their traffic gets routed through the Blindspot infrastructure. The scrubbing (filtering) center separates malicious traffic from legitimate traffic, which is allowed into the customer’s network.

‘Quality and reliable DDoS protection means the customer will not even know they’re under attack. From their point of view, the data passes through and no abnormalities are detected.

A simple analogy would be a security guard at a sports stadium who only lets the non-problematic fans in. The guard decides by checking their records and actual behavior, as well as their friends and known associates,’ Mr Cernak explains.

‘Cyber threats and network environments are dynamic. It’s essential to regularly monitor and adjust security systems based on the evolving threat landscape and changes in the client’s data flow. Continuous improvement processes can help identify and address false positives over time. Conducting thorough analysis of security incidents, including false positives, helps identify patterns and trends. This information can be used to refine detection rules and improve the accuracy of the security systems,’ the CEO continues.

Uniqueness and Adjustability

As such, the uniqueness of Blindspot’s solution is that it doesn’t accept the currently prevailing ‘one size fits all’ approach on the cybersecurity market. In contrast, the service sets specific rules of detection based on detailed data sample analysis and filtering. Working in close cooperation with the client additionally helps to see that false positive signals are eliminated.

Customer is overall the primary concern, and the needs vary a lot. A bank, a telco, or a gaming company all have different needs. Some customers need to have their traffic analyzed and scrubbed at all times, which is Blindspot’s ‘Always-On’ deployment model.

Others prefer to have the traffic scrubbed only during attacks, so the service stops attacks ‘On-Demand.’ For this deployment type, the business needs to provide its data samples.

In some cases, the customer data policy is so strict it doesn’t allow them to provide any data to third parties. Then, Blindspot has to offer two other types of deployment where the detection of an attack takes place within the client infrastructure itself and is only redirected to Blindspot’s infrastructure for scrubbing when the on-premise (client side) detection goes off.

In addition, Blindspot has achieved outstanding speed of its solution deployment. Depending on the model, it takes from several hours to several days – against the regular several-months term for this space.

‘We’ve chosen Blindspot because of their swift approach: deploy rapidly, gain profound insights into network attacks, and operate with complete transparency. Besides, Blindspot prides themselves on a clear cost structure, ensuring no hidden expenses. This clarity in their commitment to clients seeking agile, insightful, and transparent cybersecurity solutions is just what the market is looking for,’ Presto Ventures partner Eduard Kucera tells ITKeyMedia.

Intercontinental Expansion and Other Ambitions

‘The future of cybersecurity solutions lies in the cloud, which effectively means that the fight against an attack takes place ‘somewhere else’ and the client is not affected. As attacks grow, so does Blindspot, which adapts to current security threats in terms of capacity and attack detection,’ Mr Špoljarič is convinced.

The new funding is meant to fuel the startup’s expansion to new markets – namely, North America and South-East Asia – through opening representative offices. Additionally, Blindspot will target partners Managed Service Providers (MSP), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP), and integrators who have established long-term relationships with local end customers. As stable partners to their customers, adding Blindspot to their portfolio provides an opportunity for further growth.

The team’s additional interest lies in the fields of network operation, cloud services, and R&D, as well as deepening the know-how in network automation. The ambition is to create and operate a network that requires to only configure the services themselves and not the network devices (such as switches and routers) that should be automated.

Blindspot Technologies admit to the aspiration of becoming global leaders in this respect, as the team believes network automation to be the future because it saves human resource and allows the company to focus on the main goal – to become the world’s preferred DDoS protection solution provider.