Read the pitch deck that South Dakota-based Query.AI used to raise its first-ever funding

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Dhiraj Sharan, founder and CEO of Query.AI, launched his startup in South Dakota. Dhiraj Sharan
  • The cybersecurity startup Query.AI has raised its first funding, a seed round of $4.6 million.
  • Query.AI is remote, but the CEO and team headquarters are in Brookings, South Dakota. 
  • Below is the deck Query.AI used to raise the seed round from ClearSky Security and other investors. 
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Dhiraj Sharan has worked for Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Silicon Valley and Novell in the bustling global tech hub of Bangalore, India. On Thursday, he announces the first funding of his startup, Query.AI — headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota, population 35,000.

"This is the first time in my life that I'm not living in a super-crowded area," Sharan told Insider. "I think of it as Silicon Prairie."

The company is commercially launching with a round of $4.6 million in seed funding led by ClearSky Security. The startup is also backed by the founders of prominent cybersecurity firms ArcSight, CipherCloud, and Verodin. 

Query.AI acts like a search engine, giving cybersecurity pros quick answers when they may be under attack. Without accessing any privacy information about the company or its customers, the startup acts as a browser-based digital assistant to help cybersecurity workers get easy access to data about their network fast and under difficult circumstances. Query.AI helps cybersecurity teams investigate possible breaches by providing real-time data across on-premises servers, cloud servers, and software applications. 

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ClearSky Security managing partner Jay Leek, who led the round, told Insider that investing was an easy decision – in part because Sharan and cofounder Andrew Maloney are both cybersecurity veterans. "Dhiraj and Andrew understand what it takes to succeed," Leek says. The two worked together at several cybersecurity startups, including ArcSight, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2012 for approximately $1.5 billion.

Leek, a former cybersecurity executive at Nokia and Equifax, has invested in more than 30 cybersecurity startups, including Demisto, which was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2019. Leek says there is plenty of room in the crowded cybersecurity market for new startups who know what they are doing. "We're looking for practitioners," he says, noting that he and Sharan share 100 mutual acquaintances. 

But Sharan is not surrounded by them now.  

Despite deep roots in Silicon Valley, Sharan moved to Brookings in 2016, when his wife, Anamika Prasad, took a faculty position at South Dakota State University. "I like the wide open spaces," Sharan says. The company was founded in 2018, has 18 employees in five states, and is entirely remote. But the Brookings team is growing with interns and other young tech talent. Next winter, Sharan says he may take the local members of his company ice fishing on a team outing. 

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Below is the pitch deck Query.AI used to raise its seed round and launch.

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Tech Startups Cybersecurity
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