Huntress, a SaaS cybersecurity provider, raises $18M Series A led by ForgePoint Capital as it expands into additional market segments and geographies
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
This $18M Series A is the opening entry in what became one of the more consistent SMB-security funding runs of the decade: Huntress went on to raise a $40M Series B led by JMI a year later, a $60M Series C led by Sapphire Ventures in 2023, and ultimately a $150M Series D at a $1.5B+ valuation in 2024. At the time of this round, the company was a SaaS cybersecurity provider selling through IT resellers, using the money to push into additional market segments and geographies.
For lead investor ForgePoint Capital, the bet fits a pattern visible in its own portfolio activity around this period — it also led rounds for phishing-defense firm Area 1 Security and later for EDR startup SolCyber — making Huntress one data point in a deliberate thesis on managed security for under-served smaller businesses.
First-order effects
- Huntress gains the capital to broaden beyond its initial endpoint-security-for-resellers footprint into new market segments and geographies, with ForgePoint Capital taking an early board-level position in the company.
- IT resellers — Huntress's existing channel — get a vendor with fresh runway to invest in products aimed at small businesses, per the CEO's stated use of funds.
Second-order effects
- Other vendors selling managed security through the MSP/reseller channel now face a better-funded competitor expanding into adjacent segments, pressuring them to raise or differentiate on price and service breadth.
- ForgePoint's repeated SMB-security bets (Area 1, SolCyber, Huntress) signal to other investors that the segment is fundable, warming the market for follow-on rounds like JMI's Series B.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, cybersecurity for small businesses consolidates from point tools sold through resellers into managed platforms backed by successive large rounds — the trajectory Huntress itself followed from this $18M round to unicorn status.
- Specialist cyber-focused funds like ForgePoint become gatekeepers of the category, shaping which SMB-security startups get financed and which distribution models (reseller-led vs. direct) win out.
The trend: Venture capital is systematically underwriting managed security platforms for SMBs, with specialist firms like ForgePoint seeding the companies that later draw mega-rounds from generalist investors.