Cybersecurity is a white-hot investment space, with over $7.8 billion invested globally in 2020.
One startup, Cobalt, has drawn millions in funding for its penetration testing-as-a-service.
While cybersecurity is moving towards automation, Cobalt bets human pentesters will always have a job.
The $150 billion cybersecurity industry is moving rapidly towards automation, with companies racing to develop AI-powered tools to detect and patch security vulnerabilities. But one startup is betting that hackers can never be replaced by machine learning — and investors are pouring millions into its vision.
Cobalt, a cybersecurity startup founded in 2013, is one of the first startups to build its business around the notion of "penetration testing as a service," allowing companies to hire these so-called pentesters on demand.