Embedded IT firm gets IC venture arm backing

Embedded IT company Red Balloon Security has received an investment from intelligence community venture capital organization In-Q-Tel to speed up development of government and commercial endpoint security technologies.

Red Balloon’s flagship Symbiote Defense product is designed for use in embedded hardware, operating systems and firmware stacks to achieve what the company describes as “full-spectrum endpoint security.”

Ang Cui, Red Balloon’s founder and CEO, said in a release that the support of IQT aims to help further extend the availability of Symbiote across defense and government customers along with those in commercial industries such as critical infrastructure, transportation, health care and consumer electronics.

Founded in 2011, Red Balloon holds contracts with the Defense and Homeland Security departments, plus organizations in commercial power, telecommunications, automotive, industrial control and building control industries.

The company says the product has not recorded a single failure in its 14 billion hours of operational use.