Root Evidence Launches With $12.5M to Redefine Vulnerability Management

In July 2025, a team of seasoned cybersecurity leaders launched Root Evidence, a Boise-based startup with a mission to revolutionize how organizations tackle vulnerability management. Armed with $12.5 million in seed funding led by Ballistic Ventures, founders Jeremiah Grossman, Robert Hansen, Heather Konold, and Lex Arquette are setting out to fix one of cybersecurity’s most persistent problems: the overwhelming flood of vulnerabilities and the inability of security teams to focus on the ones that truly matter.

Root Evidence introduces a groundbreaking evidence-based security model—an approach that prioritizes remediation efforts based not on theoretical severity scores but on proof of exploitation in the wild. Their platform identifies the less than 1% of vulnerabilities that are actively weaponized by attackers, allowing organizations to cut through the noise, reduce breach likelihood, and calculate cyber risk in real financial terms.

This episode explores:

• The crisis of vulnerability overload, with tens of thousands of new CVEs published annually and attackers exploiting many within 24 hours of disclosure.
• Why traditional vulnerability management tools fall short and how Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (RBVM) and Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) are transforming security strategies.
• How Root Evidence’s approach empowers CISOs to communicate risk in dollars—a language executives and boards understand.
• The startup’s timing in Boise’s fast-growing tech ecosystem, where cybersecurity innovation is gaining traction.
• What Root Evidence’s entry means for enterprises preparing for events like Black Hat USA 2025, where evidence-based security is expected to be a major discussion point.

Root Evidence isn’t just another vulnerability scanner—it’s a reimagining of how businesses defend themselves in an era where speed, evidence, and financial clarity are the keys to survival.

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