Bitcoin-friendly security startup CrowdCurity raises $1 million in seed round funding

In an increasingly software-driven economy, finding security holes is rapidly becoming big business. While large companies are able to hire dedicated security teams to double-check their code, smaller programming startups and app makers don’t always have the money needed to give their programs a thorough stress-test before launch. This can lead to disaster, particularly when programs and apps that manage bitcoin are concerned. San Francisco-based startup CrowdCurity aims to address this, turning the once informal bug-bounty market into a dedicated service.

The company announced yesterday that it has raised $1 million in seed round funding, with the lion’s share of that coming from noted bitcoin investor Tim Draper. Other investors include Cryptonaut Ventures, Kima Ventures, Gerhard Eschelbeck, Fengmin Gong and 500 Startups. Interestingly, the Cryptonaut Ventures contribution was made with bitcoin via the Draper-backed Vaurum platform, which is itself a client of CrowdCurity.

CrowdCurity already has an impressive client list, counting Blockchain, BTCJam, Hive Wallet, Vault of Satoshi, BitGo and ANXBTC among just their bitcoin-specific users. Speaking with CoinDesk, CrowdCurity CEO Jacob Hansen said that a drive to disrupt the software security industry is one of his company’s motivating factors: “We are tired of security being something for enterprises and consultants in grey suits. It’s time to put some Web 2.0 into security, and show the people on the other end.”