Sendmarc, a South African cybersecurity firm, recently raised US$7 million in a Series A led by Atlantica Ventures and a number of other investors. Sendmarc offers businesses and people solutions to assure email security and avoid identity theft.
The Johannesburg-based startup was founded in 2020 by CEO Sam Hutchinson, Keith Thompson, and Sacha Matulovich, and uses proprietary technology to protect domains against spoofing
“What we do differently, unlike our competitors, is that we have built a product focusing on go-to-market features. Let’s use this example: say you devised a vaccine to solve a virus. Everyone agrees it works. And now there are, let’s say, ten vaccine manufacturers. The problem isn’t the vaccine manufacturing; it is the distribution to millions who need it,” Matulovich stated.
The business intends to add more identity theft prevention capabilities to its product range as a result of the funding.
It obtained an undisclosed sum of cash from Endeavor South Africa in June 2021 to increase its operations in South Africa.
The startup claims to have over 1,000 paying customers across North America, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Latin America who pay monthly subscription fees of between $49 and $119. From those, it has generated over $2 million in annual revenue run rate (ARR).
Investors in the startup’s latest round include Atlantica Ventures, Allan Gray, E-Squared Ventures, Fireball Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, 4Di Capital, Endeavor Harvest, Alpha Private Capital, and Kalon Venture Partners. So far, it has raised $8.5 million in funding.
Sendmarc anticipates reaching 100,000 clients in the next five years with its current clientele of over 1,000 (80% of whom are in South Africa and the remaining 20% are located elsewhere in the world). In order to better serve its clients and give tools to track international email and domain security practices, it also wants to grow its sales force throughout Africa.
