HSBC, JP Morgan and American Express back cyber startup Menlo Security in $40m series C | City A.M.

A cyber security startup has won backing from several top financial institutions amid the growing threat of hacking and data breaches.

HSBC, JP Morgan and American Express’s venture arm are among investors in a $40m series C funding round for Menlo Security, a Silicon Valley startup which provides protection against malware.

Ericsson Ventures also participated, with previous backers of the four-year-old firm including General Catalyst, Sutter Hill Ventures, Osage University Partners and Engineering Capital. JP Morgan has also invested earlier.

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“More than a million users at hundreds of companies are protected by Menlo, with zero infections to date,” said chief executive Amir Ben Efraim.

He added that the funding would help it continue to “expand our deployments globally to meet this growing demand, while delivering on our vision of eliminating the phishing, ransomware and malware risks from email, web and document downloads”.

JP Morgan head of private investments Rick Smith, said that “phishing has grown to be one of the most common threats to businesses across industries and geographies” while HSBC’s head of cyber technology Tim Dawson said “cyber security is a top priority for us”.

Investment in cyber security firms is set to hit a record in 2017 according to data from CB Insights. Earlier this year Lloyds Banking Group and Deutsche Bank backed London startup Callsign.