The Future of Cybersecurity: Investors Place $6M Bet on Manifest’s SBOM Management Technology

Funding/M&A Investors Make $6M Bet on Manifest for SBOM Management Technology

Manifest, an early-stage startup that builds technology to help businesses generate, collect, and operationalize software bill of materials (SBOMs), has raised $6 million in venture capital funding. This funding has come at a crucial time, as investors race to find value in software supply chain security companies. The seed round was led by First Round Capital. Manifest is joining many other early stage start-ups tackling SBOM management and software supply chain visibility by helping businesses generate, collect, and manage SBOMs.

SBOM Management – The Need of the Hour

The start-up is created by entrepreneurs who have prior experience at the Pentagon and Palantir, and is banking on the growing importance of mandatory SBOMs to provide nested lists of components in modern software products. The US government has issued mandates describing SBOMs as a critical part of federal cybersecurity policy, forcing CISOs and security leaders to look for SBOM management capabilities.

Manifest helps enterprises automatically monitor their SBOMs, so they can quickly identify any exposure to vulnerabilities and alert customers before they even know there’s an issue. This allows enterprises to put remediation strategies in place within a matter of hours or days. It is important to note that SBOMs have emerged as a critical defense against cyber-attacks, making SBOM management the need of the hour.

Manifest‘s Platform Features and Capabilities

The company’s platform is capable of generating SBOMs without developer intervention from an organization’s CI/CD pipeline and securely sharing SBOMs between vendors and customers with AskBOM, an automated SBOM solicitation tool. Manifest‘s platform also promises tools to ingest SBOMs in any format (CycloneDX or SPDX) or file type. The company also promises vulnerability and exploitability assessment capabilities to match known components from vulnerability databases and has been successful in cataloging such generated SBOMs. Manifest‘s SBOM management expertise has enabled it to secure two new contracts from the US government to help federal agencies and military to gain an understanding of the software they use.

Manifest and the Future of SBOMs

Manifest is part of a growing need for SBOM management capabilities to keep pace with the increasing cyber threats to software products. SBOMs are mandatory and will help in identifying the vulnerabilities present in software components. While the government has mandated SBOMs inclusion, there can be no compromise in cybersecurity policy and therefore a need for companies like Manifest to ensure the safety of confidential data while also improving cybersecurity standards.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency or company. Examples of analysis performed within this article are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only on very limited, personal, and dated open source information.

Advice for Investors:

Investing in seed rounds is always a ‘risk vs. reward’ scenario. However, investing in a start-up that is revolutionizing SBOM management through software supply chain visibility can lead to high rewards concerning securing sensitive organizational data, especially in the current scenario where threats to cybersecurity are increasing. Manifest‘s strong government involvement is a sign that it is a credible company with vast potential. However, investors should keep in mind the risks associated with seed rounds while considering such investments.

Advice for Enterprises:

As mandated by the US government, enterprises must take measures to implement SBOMs to ensure software bill of material visibility and security. It is essential that enterprises invest in capabilities that will help them manage, automate, assess, and track their SBOMs to safeguard their confidential data. Manifest‘s SBOM management capabilities coupled with other existing tools can help enterprises prioritize remediation and risk management strategies to minimize their vulnerability to cyber attacks. Therefore, for businesses, investing in SBOM management capabilities should become a top priority.