Red Cell Partners and General Catalyst Co-Develop Andesite to Advance Cybersecurity for Analysts

Red Cell Partners and General Catalyst today announced the public launch of Andesite AI (“Andesite”), a cybersecurity company dedicated to delivering cutting-edge technology to overburdened cybersecurity teams.

By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), Andesite analyzes decentralized data sets at scale to help cyber defenders and analysts more quickly surface threats and vulnerabilities, prioritize and allocate resources, and respond and remediate in a way that improves security posture and reduces cost.

Co-developed by Red Cell and General Catalyst, Andesite has built an advanced AI security analytics platform to empower both private- and public-sector cyber analysts to defend against advanced persistent threats (APTs). The company, established in 2023, emerges from stealth with $15.25 million in initial funding. Andesite is the latest company to launch under Red Cell’s newly formed Cyber Practice, led by George Barnes, a former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA).

“At Andesite, we’re building the next-generation security analyst experience. Our mission is to supercharge cyber defenders to operate with greater agility in an increasingly data-dense security environment,” said Andesite’s Co-Founder and CEO Brian Carbaugh. “Red Cell and General Catalyst’s support of our efforts demonstrates not only their faith in our technology, but also their commitment to making both government and commercial organizations stronger and more resilient in the face of today’s relentless cyber threat landscape.”

Joining Carbaugh, a partner at Red Cell and the former Director of the CIA’s Special Activities Center, is a proven leadership team of specialized talent with deep roots inside defense, military, and intelligence communities as well as the private sector, including:

• Lead Independent Director, Brig. Gen. (Retired) Chris Inglis, the former White House National Cyber Director and former Deputy Director of the NSA
• Chief Product Officer William MacMillan, a U.S. Air Force Veteran who previously served as CISO at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Senior Vice President of Information Security at Salesforce
• Chief Strategy Officer Greg Rattray, PhD, former CISO at JP Morgan Chase
• Chief Technology Officer Alex Thaman, former Chief Architect of Computer Vision at Unity and Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft
• Chief Revenue Officer Jaci Tomek, serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and go-to-market executive with leadership experience at NetWitness (Dell), iSight Partners (Google), Wickr (AWS), Phantom (Splunk), and Palo Alto Networks
• Senior Advisor Kris Meritt, U.S. Air Force Veteran, former Intrusion Detection Lead for GE Aviation and former Senior Director, Threat Hunting Operations for CrowdStrike

In addition, Red Cell Director Wes Bush, the former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman, and General Catalyst Advisor Lt. Gen. (Retired) Scott Howell, former Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, will join Inglis on Andesite’s Board of Directors.

"I partnered with General Catalyst to help bring global resilience to our most critical industries. The need to urgently modernize our approach to cyber with AI is something I saw firsthand at JSOC and I’m now excited to help Andesite bring those capabilities to organizations and governments," said Howell.

About Andesite: Andesite is focused on improving the capabilities and efficiencies of cyber defense teams. Its advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technology is built to simplify cyber threat decision making by accelerating the process of turning decentralized data sets into actionable insights. This empowers cyber defenders and analysts to more quickly surface threats and vulnerabilities, prioritize and allocate resources, and respond and remediate in a way that improves security posture and reduces cost. Andesite was built by an “Analyst Obsessed” technology team, with the company mission predicated on improving the output of analysts while reducing their burden of work. Visit us at andesite.ai and follow us on social media (Linkedin).

About Red Cell: Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. Visit us at redcellpartners.com and follow us on social media (LinkedIn, X, Instagram).

About General Catalyst: General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, Berlin, and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, HubSpot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240409453716/en/