Bringing Enterprise-grade Security to SMBs: Why We Invested in RADICL Defense

The SMB security dilemma

The cybersecurity landscape has fundamentally changed. Attack sophistication has skyrocketed, accelerated by generative AI that enables adversaries to conduct hyper-targeted campaigns at unprecedented scale. Meanwhile, regulatory requirements continue to expand, with frameworks like CMMC forcing companies to prove their security posture to transact with government agencies.

While enterprises have long enjoyed access to best-of-breed security solutions from vendors like Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne, small and medium-sized businesses have been left behind—underserved, under-protected, and increasingly under attack.

SMBs face a painful reality:

• They can't manage cybersecurity effectively without external support

• An overwhelming majority of breaches involve human error, not just technical gaps

• Traditional enterprise security products are prohibitively expensive and complex

• Managing multiple point solutions creates "cyber fatigue"

• 24/7 monitoring and response capabilities exceed most internal capacities

The existing solutions haven't solved this. Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) offer help but are headcount-intensive, inconsistent in quality, and expensive. Meanwhile, the few SMB-focused vendors that exist typically offer only one or two product categories, forcing customers to still juggle multiple vendors, dashboards, and invoices.

The Enterprise versus SMB security bifurcation

The global cybersecurity market represents $454 billion in 2025 spending and is projected to top $1 trillion by 2031. Yet the market remains highly fragmented—even the leader, Palo Alto Networks, holds only about 10% of the market share.

A lot has been said about the consolidation in the enterprise, with examples such as:

• Palo Alto Networks strategy of “Platformization”

• XDR platforms projected to capture 18% of traditional SIEM spending by 2027

• The top two hundred MSSPs are expected to consolidate to about 120 by 2028.

• CISOs increasingly demand single-pane-of-glass visibility and predictable costs over fragmented tool collections.

While this consolidation is happening in the Enterprise segment of cyber-Security, designing an integrated solution is incredibly hard, due to the inherent Enterprise stack complexity. For SMBs, given their constraints, the movement favors platform consolidation over best-of-breed specialization, but those solutions fell short-to-date. With the introduction of AI tooling, a better approach emerged.

Enter RADICL: Enterprise Security, SMB Delivery, AI first principles

When CEO Chris Petersen (former founder and CTO of LogRhythm, acquired by Thoma Bravo), his brother Matt Petersen and COO Dave Graff were thinking about acute problems in the Security space, they were immediately drawn to the striking difference in cyber preparedness between Enterprises and SMBs. They’ve seen how companies like HubSpot were able to bridge the disconnect in segments like CRM, and figured, with AI, and using first-principles approach, they can build "the HubSpot of Cybersecurity” - an elegant, enterprise-grade platform designed specifically for SMBs.

RADICL brings deep security product expertise with a fresh perspective on delivery. This team has built enterprise-grade security products before, and they understand what it takes to compete with well-funded incumbents. As importantly, the team is mission-driven to democratize security for businesses that have been left behind.

Chris and his team asked a fundamental question: What if you could deliver enterprise-grade security, the type that is used by sophisticated customers, through AI-powered automation, a lean virtual SOC and the operational simplicity required by SMBs?

With that in mind, Chris, and the team set on an architecture of a platform that is opinionated yet composable. Customers get the breadth of an enterprise security stack with the simplicity of a single vendor relationship, unified dashboard, and predictable pricing. The platform includes:

• Stand-alone modules: for Managed Detection and Response, threat intelligence, Risk-prioritization, and GRC—all in one platform.

• AI-native operations: Digital agents automate security workflows that previously required expensive human analysts

• Virtual SOC: 24/7 monitoring and response delivered by a lean, highly efficient security operations team

• Modular adoption: Customers can start with one wedge (like MDR or CMMC compliance requirements) and expand as needs grow

Why Now: The AI Unlock

Until recently, servicing SMBs with a modular platform plus virtual operations center simply wasn't economically nor operationally viable. Generative AI and autonomous agents have changed the equation. RADICL uses AI to:

• Automate security response playbooks

• Process manual security operations

• Reduce dependency on expensive security analysts and simplify the work of MSSPs

• Better service customers with a knowledgeable yet lean vSOC team

To Cervin Ventures, this represents an approach that’s truly applying defensive AI to counter adversarial AI—and it makes a previously impossible business model not just viable but highly attractive from a unit economics perspective.

Moreover, we believe RADICL is positioned to capture a massive opportunity in an SMB cybersecurity market where spending is growing faster than enterprise and with regulatory pressure increasing. AI and automation unlock economics that weren't possible before, allowing high-quality security operations at SMB price points. As RADICL expands the composable solution, they build advantages that are difficult for enterprise vendors to replicate down-market and for MSSPs to match on efficiency. This can in turn unlock a TAM that's currently prohibitive to large vendors, combines an attractive service delivery and could potentially become the default security platform for mid-market and SMB customers.

What's Next

In RADICL we’re excited to be backing a team that's building for the long term—not just a point solution but a platform that can evolve with customer needs and market dynamics. In a fragmented market with no dominant player serving SMBs, RADICL has a category defining company opportunity ahead.