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 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.
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 practises, it also wants to grow its sales force throughout Africa.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard
In January and April this year, Kalon Venture Partner, a South African-based venture capital firm, led investments in South African cybersecurity startup, Sendmarc. Now, joining Kalon Venture in the investment rounds in Sendmarc is Endeavor South Africa, a non-profit organisation that identifies and supports innovative, high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets to scale. Endeavor made the investment through one of its funds, Harvest venture Capital II.
Sendmarc CEO, Sam Hutchinson
The investment will boost Sendmarc’s expansion in South Africa and globally.
“We welcome the support and continued commitment of the Kalon team and are really excited to have the Endeavor SA’s Harvest Fund on board not just as strategic investors, but as co-investors too,” says Sendmarc CEO, Sam Hutchinson. “The latest round of funding gives us a great runway to supercharge our growth path both in South Africa and internationally.”
Why Endeavour Invested
On why it invested, Antonia Bothner, Capital Lead at Endeavor said: “Sendmarc is an Endeavor Entrepreneur — one of 28 in the country — and we are delighted to be able to co-invest and support this dynamic team.”
Following a disciplined, rules-based investment process, Endeavor South Africa, which is part of the bigger Endeavour Catalyst network, invests alongside professional venture capital and growth equity firms into the equity financing rounds of Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
The main rules of investment by Endeavor Catalyst are:
Investment only in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs — these entrepreneurs have successfully passed Endeavor’s rigorous selection process. For instance, of the 5,000 companies screened by Endeavor Brazil last year, only 12 companies were selected to join the Endeavor network.
Participation in rounds of at least US$5 million+ in equity capital;
The round in question needs to be led by a qualified institutional investor.
If these criteria are met, Endeavor Catalyst seeks to invest in up to 10% of the round, with a maximum investment of US$2 million. Endeavor Catalyst portfolio companies continue to receive support services from Endeavor.
In South Africa, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund’s structure is unusual in that it allows for the reinvestment of 20% of carry into the ecosystem. This implies that when firms like Sendmarc succeed, a percentage of the profits will be reinvested in the South African entrepreneurial ecosystem, assisting in the development of the next generation of high-impact entrepreneurs. As a result, the fund’s influence should be multiplicative in the long run. Endeavor South Africa’s portfolio of 28 companies has generated over R2-billion in sales and created over 4,600 jobs in the last two years.
“Having Endeavor on board really validates the problem that Sendmarc is solving and provides the team access to their global network of entrepreneurs and investors” says Clive Butkow the CEO of Kalon Venture Partners.
A Look At What Sendmarc Does
Sendmarc, founded in 2018 by Sam Hutchinson, Sacha Matulovich, and Keith Thompson, provides the setup, deployment, and reporting capability for the DMARC worldwide email protection standard (Domain Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance). The protocol is intended to provide email owners the ability to safeguard their domains against unauthorized usage, such as impersonation attacks or email spoofing, and to assist scammers from stealing domain names and using them to send phishing emails.
Sendmarc meets a genuine and rising demand by speeding up the installation of DMARC, allowing businesses to defend themselves, as well as their customers and suppliers, from escalating cyber assaults. Sendmarc has had rapid growth since its inception, processing 400 million emails each month on its platform and rising at a rate of 30% month over month. It has 35 JSE-listed firms as customers, as well as a growing list of clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and South America.
The firm is on its way to become Africa’s foremost cybersecurity platform, addressing the issues of phishing and spoofing. Its development ambitions include entering and expanding in international markets, as well as continuing to strengthen its position in South Africa.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
South Africa’s cybersecurity email protection and compliance startup Sendmarc has received follow-on investment from Kalon Venture Partners as it looks to build on strong recent growth. Founded three years ago by Sam Hutchinson, Keith Thompson and Sacha Matulovich, Sendmarc provides the setup, implementation and reporting functionality for a global email protection standard known as DMARC.
Sendmar Co-founder Sam Hutchinson
This protocol is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domains from unauthorised use, such as impersonation attacks or email spoofing. By accelerating the implementation of DMARC, Sendmarc enables organisations to protect themselves as well as their customers and suppliers.
Sendmarc first raised funding from Kalon Venture Partners, a South Africa-based Section 12J venture capital company, in January of last year, but since then it has seen strong growth. This year alone it has seen an average of 30 per cent month-on-month growth, and it is processing around 400 million emails per month on its platform. Customers include 35 JSE-listed companies as well as some international clients.
With further growth in mind, it has now taken on follow-on capital from Kalon, with which it plans on entering international markets while continuing to build its presence in South Africa.
“We welcome the support and continued commitment of Clive Butkow and the Kalon team. Sendmarc looks forward to further expanding our team and scaling the Sendmarc business into global markets,” said Sam Hutchinson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sendmarc.
Kalon Venture Partners CEO Butkow said the Sendmarc team was “exceptional”.
“Kalon’s strategy is to invest in the best teams building innovative scalable technology. The Sendmarc team tick all of these boxes – they continue to show exceptional leadership ability while building on outstanding tech innovation and showing exceptional growth in revenue,” he said.
“This follow-on round is testimony to the Sendmarc team’s ability to deliver a solution solving a large problem across industries. Sendmarc is the solution that makes the internet a safer place and prevents phishing and spoofing which reduces the cloning of emails for malicious intent. A very real threat and an essential and much needed security solution for every business.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Sendmarc, a Johannesburg-based cybersecurity platform has secured commitment of an undisclosed amount from Kalon Venture Partners, a South African venture capital fund to expand internationally. The announcement was made by CEO Sam Hutchinson.
chief executive officer (CEO) Sam Hutchinson
“We welcome the support and continued commitment of Clive Butkow [CEO of Kalon Venture Partners] and his team. Sendmarc looks forward to further expanding its team and growing its business in the global market, ”commented Sam Hutchinson.
Here Is What You Need To Know
This new commitment follows a first transaction concluded in December 2019 between the two entities. Kalon Venture which supports technology companies with high growth potential had pledged to support the startup that solves identity theft and phishing problems in its plan to reach 200,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Clive Butkow attributes the investment made in Sendmarc to its business model and the offer created.
“Kalon’s strategy is to invest in the best teams who build innovative, scalable technology; The Sendmarc team ticks all of these boxes. It continues to demonstrate exceptional leadership capacity while leveraging technological innovation and showing strong revenue growth, ”he said.
Sendmarc, launched in 2018, is spearheaded by chief executive officer (CEO) Sam Hutchinson, who was also the founder of marketing startup Everlytic, acquired by Vox Telecom in 2016.
This protocol is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domains from unauthorised use, such as impersonation attacks or email spoofing. The purpose and primary outcomes of implementing DMARC are to protect a domain from being used in business email compromise attacks, phishing emails, email scams and other invasive cyber threats.
Hutchinson said the need for a secure and safe email environment was of paramount importance today.
On its website, Sendmarc claims to have processed around 400 million emails per month, since the start of 2021.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
South African email protection and compliance startup Sendmarc has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kalon Venture Partners.
Co-founder Sam Hutchinson
“We are very excited about this new investment partnership and look forward to building a more non-threatening cyber future by making email safe again,” Co-founder Sam Hutchinson said.
The round of investment would be used to grow the company.
Why The Investors Invested
Launched in 2018 by Sam Hutchinson, Keith Thompson and Sacha Matulovich, cybersecurity startup Sendmarc provides the setup, implementation and reporting functionality for a global email protection standard known as DMARC.
“At Kalon we firstly invest in people. Sam, Sacha and Keith gave us confidence that they were the right team for this opportunity. This is not their first rodeo and they bring significant experience in building and scaling tech businesses,” said Kalon Venture Partners CEO Clive Butkow.
“Sendmarc is the type of disruptive technology that solves big business problems in a growing market of cybersecurity threats faced by businesses. The need for a secure system that ensures “business as usual” is more important than ever before and we are excited about Sendmarc joining our portfolio. Cloning of emails and malicious intent is now something a business can have control over, and in doing so we are indeed part of the solution towards winning the war on cyber threats.”
At Look At What The Startup Does
Sendmarc is spearheaded by chief executive officer (CEO) Sam Hutchinson, who was also the founder of marketing startup Everlytic, acquired by Vox Telecom in 2016.
This protocol is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domains from unauthorised use, such as impersonation attacks or email spoofing. The purpose and primary outcomes of implementing DMARC are to protect a domain from being used in business email compromise attacks, phishing emails, email scams and other invasive cyber threats.
Hutchinson said the need for a secure and safe email environment was of paramount importance today.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com
