Michigan Connected Vehicle Security Startup Karamba Security Raises $10 Million

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Connected vehicle security startup Karamba Security Ltd. announced it has raised $10 million in another venture round that will be used to fund the acquisition of companies and technology to beef up its Autonomous Security portfolio.

The money in this round came from Silicon Valley-based venture debt firm Western Technology Investment. Last May, Karamba, an Israeli company with offices in Michigan and Japan, raised $12 million in another venture capital round.

“This new funding provides a line of capital we can use as needed for inorganic growth to expand Karamba’s solutions suite across the rapidly evolving automotive landscape,” Ami Dotan, Karamba’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Including the new funding, Karamba has raised $27 million to date. Previous investors include Paladin Capital Group, Fontinalis Partners, YL Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures and Asgent.

Karamba offers automotive cybersecurity solutions for connected vehicles, including cars with smart features, semiautonomous features and fully autonomous vehicle platforms.

The company’s main product is Carwall, software that generates policies based on factory settings embedded into a vehicle’s electronic control unit’s firmware to prevent any exploit attempts. Carwall’s core policy enforcement mechanism is complemented by a number of other security features designed to block potential attack vectors.

The software places strict restrictions on any external devices that are attached to a vehicle and regulates engine control units’ internet connections to prevent remote exploitation. The last feature is said to block unauthorized access attempts while letting through updates from the manufacturer.

Karamba said it has engaged with 17 automotive manufacturers and tier-1 suppliers. Its portfolio of products integrates with a variety of platforms, including ARM, Intel, PowerPC and Infineon on the chip level and QNX, Linux and various RTOS and AUTOSAR platforms on the operating system and scheduler level.