Root Evidence, a cutting-edge cybersecurity startup, has secured $12.5 million in seed funding to reshape how enterprises identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. The round was led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from Grossman Ventures and other strategic investors.

Founded by Jeremiah Grossman, a pioneering figure in infosec and the founder of WhiteHat Security, Root Evidence is setting out to solve a long-standing problem in cybersecurity: not all vulnerabilities are created equal, and less than 1% of them actually matter.

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What Is Root Evidence Building?

Root Evidence is building a platform that flips the script on traditional vulnerability management. Instead of generating endless lists of CVEs, patches, and compliance flags, it helps security teams identify which vulnerabilities are actually exploitable in the real world - and which ones can be safely ignored.

Its core focus is on evidence-based prioritization, enabling security leaders to:

• Cut through noise and false positives
  
• Focus on vulnerabilities that present actual business risk
  
• Align remediation with real-world threat intelligence and attack paths
  
• Drive down MTTR (Mean Time to Remediate) for critical exposures
  

By combining threat context, exploitability analysis, and organizational impact, Root Evidence delivers actionable insights - not alert fatigue.

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Why Vulnerability Overload Is a Growing Crisis

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, organizations are drowning in vulnerabilities. According to IBM’s 2024 Threat Intelligence Index, the average enterprise faces over 100,000 new vulnerabilities each year, yet less than 1% are ever exploited in the wild.

The result? Teams burn precious cycles chasing hypothetical risks while real threats go unpatched.

founders and security leaders: The future of cybersecurity isn’t about finding more vulnerabilities - it’s about knowing which ones matter most. Root Evidence gives companies the power to focus not on volume, but on verifiability. In a market where trust, time, and triage are all constrained, this shift is what enables faster, smarter, and more defensible security postures.

For CISOs, that means better board conversations. For security engineers, it means fewer rabbit holes. And for startups handling sensitive data, it means reducing risk while staying lean.

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Backed by Cybersecurity’s Top Names

Root Evidence’s seed round was led by Ballistic Ventures, one of the most respected cybersecurity-focused VC firms in the industry. Ballistic has a track record of backing category-defining security startups, and its involvement brings strategic validation to Root Evidence’s mission.

Also participating was Grossman Ventures, a firm founded by Jeremiah Grossman himself to support high-impact infosec innovation. This unique blend of founder-led expertise and venture backing gives Root Evidence a distinctive edge in the crowded security market.

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Why the Market Is Ready for a Rethink

According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, organizations take an average of 204 days to identify and contain a breach, and the average breach cost in the U.S. has hit $9.5 million. Yet paradoxically, the vast majority of vulnerabilities that companies scramble to patch are never used in those breaches.

Meanwhile, the global vulnerability management market is projected to grow from $13.8 billion in 2023 to $21.7 billion by 2028, at a 12.5% CAGR (Allied Market Research). Despite this growth, most companies still rely on dated systems that emphasize volume over verifiability.

Gartner has also reported that by 2026, 60% of organizations will prioritize exposure management programs over traditional vulnerability management—a major signal that the industry is moving toward Root Evidence’s model.

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Root Evidence’s Position in the Cyber Stack

Root Evidence integrates with existing SIEMs, scanners, and ticketing systems to add one critical missing layer: truth. Instead of replacing your tools, it makes them smarter by filtering noise and surfacing what matters.

Its platform is designed for:

• Enterprises overwhelmed by vulnerability overload
  
• SaaS companies scaling with lean security teams
  
• Highly regulated industries that need audit-grade risk validation
  
• MDR/XDR vendors looking to enhance prioritization accuracy
  

In short, it’s not just another scanner - it’s the layer that separates signal from noise.

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Why This Matters to Startups and Founders

For startups, security is often a resource war. You want to ship fast but protect your surface area. Root Evidence helps founders win this battle by ensuring teams focus on the vulnerabilities that truly matter, not just what compliance tools scream about.

Faster triage = fewer distractions = more shipping. That’s a founder’s dream.

And in an era of increased public scrutiny, breach disclosures, and investor pressure, the ability to show evidence-backed security posture is becoming a trust differentiator in itself.

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What’s Next for Root Evidence?

With its $12.5M seed round, Root Evidence plans to:

• Expand its engineering and data science teams
  
• Build out integrations with cloud platforms and DevSecOps stacks
  
• Accelerate enterprise onboarding and channel partnerships
  
• Launch a public beta and community-driven threat lab
  

The long-term vision? Make evidence-based vulnerability management the new standard, not the exception.

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