Tal Kollender, CEO and co-founder of Remedio, was used to hack games and smartphone apps for fun as a teenager. Now, her AI is looking for weaknesses in the company's network. (Photo credit: Ohad Kab)
Ohad kab
Tal Corendar likes to keep things lean. The former teen hacker and cyber defender with Israeli intelligence runs a small team of 40 people focusing on one of the more mundane tasks for IT security. Find devices with dangerous false misconceptions such as overly tolerant access to apps, or dangerous false misconceptions such as patched old software.
Previous Gytpol, now known as Remedio, has developed AI models that act like hackers, looking for false mining that could help with exploitation before warning them. To that end, Remedio installs lightweight software known as “agents” on every computer, phone, and server, allowing you to see in detail what's going on with a particular device. The software will determine what is safe and unavailable, then update systems with “zero disruption” in business operations, he told Kollender Forbes.
Kollender, 36, has been a Bootstrapped Remedio for six years, claiming to be profitable during that time. But now she hopes to secure $65 million in her first funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partner, and get participation from TLV Partners and Picture Capital. According to sources familiar with pay raises, it values the company at $300 million.
“We just want to grow and grow exponentially.”
The company plans to develop more AI to automate other security tasks, but Kollender wants to maintain slimline operations. “It's all because it's a way to stay profitable, save money, and want to stay profitable,” she said.
Lead Bessemer investor Adam Fisher said he rarely saw such success from a bootstrap business because “it's so easy to raise a VC in cyber.” The key to investing decisions is “stellar financial performance and efficient,” Fisher said.
After hacking online games and competitions to manipulate rankings as a teenager, and failing to train fighter pilots with the Israeli Defense Forces as a young adult in the mid-2000s, Corender moved to Cyber Intelligence Operations, where he hone his craft. After the military, she began working in the tech industry and eventually won a role at Dell EMC as the leader of the IT Security Architecture team.
She started Remedio in 2019 and worked with Gilad Raz and Yakov Kogan, co-founders of Digital Fuel, a financial IT provider that was acquired for $85 million, reported by VMware in 2011. In 2024, Amazon welcomed Gytpol's first AWS participation and Crowdstrike Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator and was named the top company in the cohort that was recognized for a “really groundbreaking” approach to addressing IT risks.
Bessemer's Fisher says much of the success of Remedio is due to the corender. “Tal is the driving force behind the company,” he said. She said thanks to a “unusual” combination of strong technical skills and the ability to “be extremely persuasive and win with customers.”
However, word of mouth is no longer sufficient for the Corendar. This investment is primarily used to enhance marketing, especially in the US, and will help launch new tools that include those that communicate vulnerabilities to customers that require more attention than others. “We just want to grow and grow exponentially,” she said.
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