- Aura, a cybersecurity startup, helps consumers prevent identity theft.
- Hari Ravichandran founded it after he was hacked himself in 2014.
- Now Aura is valued at $2.5 billion after a $200 million round led by Madrone Capital Partners.
Data security became personal for Hari Ravichandran in 2014 after he received a call saying he was rejected from a mortgage application. As it turned out, Ravichandran’s financial information and identity had been stolen by hackers.
It took him two weeks to figure out how he’d been hacked, and even then, he still had no idea how much of his personal data was stolen. “To be able to feel safe or protected, I had to go buy six, seven, eight, nine, 10 different things. Even as a technical person, it was very hard to figure out who to use, how to use it, what to pay,” he said.
The incident motivated Ravichandran to start a new company that could bundle personal and financial data protection into a service. Aura would monitor users’ credit reports, protect devices from
malware
, and track bank accounts and credit cards for suspicious activity. This isn’t Ravichandran’s first tech startup: He previously cofounded the IT services company Endurance International Group, which went public in October 2013.
In 2019, Aura caught the eye of the investor Sujay Jaswa, a partner at the VC firm WndrCo, which he cofounded with the Hollywood producer and executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. Jaswa invested in Aura’s early-stage rounds through WndrCo and introduced Ravichandran to fellow partner Katzenberg.
Katzenberg was out promoting the startup’s product at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, last week and even did an onstage demo video showing a hacker finding a way into Katzenberg’s contacts on his PC through an out-of-date network operating system. Then the video showed the hacker spoofing Katzenberg’s longtime associate, Anthony Saleh, to send Katzenberg
phishing
messages intended to obtain his passwords and financial information.
Katzenberg told Insider that he loved the idea of a Ring doorbell for cybersecurity that was easy for anyone to use, including a “digital idiot” like himself.
“In the next 10 years, consumer cybersecurity is literally going to become a must-have,” Katzenberg said. He added that he hoped Aura would become the “Tiffany brand,” referring to the famous luxury jewelry store.
That’s why WndrCo invested in Aura as part of its latest $200 million Series F round led by Madrone Capital Partners.
Katzenberg said, “We’re trying to build a $100 billion business, and we’re in it for the full ride.”
Check out the 18-slide pitch deck that Aura used to raise $200 million.
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