BotGuard, an Estonia-founded cybersecurity software company, has secured a €12 million Series A funding round. The company helps web hosting providers control traffic and protect their infrastructure from malicious threats.

Nearly half of all internet traffic comes from bots, exposing website owners to threats such as data theft, scams, and DDoS attacks. Good bots also exist everywhere: every payment system, CMS, or social tool uses ‘good bots.’

BotGuard has partnered with hosting providers to provide website owners with a cloud-based solution that filters web traffic, lowers website management costs, defends infrastructure, and protects assets.

As generative AI makes the malicious threats businesses are facing even more sophisticated, the BotGuard team has its own AI-powered solution – effectively fighting AI with AI. Using AI and other innovative technologies to automate the implementation process and reduce costs, the startup provides effective, manageable, platform-agnostic web security for organisations of all sizes.

“Every business should have effective web traffic management, yet there are no affordable solutions focused on the SME segment due to complicated and expensive onboarding processes,” said Nik Rozenberg, CEO and co-founder at Botguard.

“Malicious bot traffic can be extremely harmful for businesses – particularly for the likes of e-commerce retailers that depend on their website to operate – and organisations require tools that keep pace with the rapidly-evolving threat landscape,” he added.

Even neutral web traffic – like some crawler bots – can drive up management costs, mentioned Rozenberg. “We are excited for this next stage of our growth journey as we continue to innovate and expand into new territories,” he said.

Malicious bot traffic can be extremely harmful for businesses – particularly for the likes of e-commerce retailers that depend on their website to operate.
Nik Rozenberg, CEO and co-founder at Botguard

The funding is led by MMC Ventures. Existing investors Tera Ventures, and Expeditions Fund also participated in the round, alongside prominent angel investors including Stefan Lindeberg.

“There’s an addressable market of over 300 million websites that require the level of protection Botguard OÜ can provide,” explained Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner at Tera Ventures why they invested to the company. “The company is putting hosting providers in the driver’s seat, providing them with a straightforward and robust solution which protects against myriad web threats and offers complete control over web traffic.”

BotGuard was founded in Estonia in 2019 by engineers Nik Rozenberg and Denis Prochko (CTO).  Born out of the co-founders’ experience leading and growing startups and battling malicious bots and hackers on their own websites, BotGuard now operates globally with clients and partners in more than 30 countries.

This latest investment will enable the business to develop its technology further, recruit tech development talent, and expand its sales and marketing teams as it continues to scale globally.

The company’s executive team includes industry veterans such as CRO Bertil Brendeke (ex-CloudFest, Acronis), COO Martin Pawliczek (ex-GoDaddy, Host Europe Group), CPO Jason Haworth (ex-AWS, F5 Networks), CMO Renee Stromberg (ex-Cisco, F5 Networks) and CDS Cagri Ozcinar (ex-Samsung, Sky Group).