Clearwater Startup Guardare Raised $5.6 Million in Seed Cash
The cybersecurity firm plans to scale its operations and product integrations following a fresh round of equity financing.
Updated on Oct. 13, 2026 in Cybersecurity
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Clearwater-based cybersecurity startup Guardare has secured $5.6 million in additional seed capital, bringing its total equity sold to $10.7 million. This investment follows the company’s July 2025 commercial launch and will support expanded sales and marketing efforts.
Why it matters
The funding provides runway for Guardare to scale its operations ahead of a planned Series A financing round. The company aims to increase its platform reach as it integrates with dozens of security tools to help firms prioritize vulnerability responses.
Guardare’s platform currently connects to more than 200 technology products to synthesize data. The software uses artificial intelligence to evaluate security findings, rank identified vulnerabilities, and recommend specific response priorities for security teams.
The players
Guardare
A Clearwater-based cybersecurity startup that uses an AI-driven platform to rank and prioritize security vulnerabilities across 200 integrated enterprise tools.
Tampa Bay Wave
A regional technology accelerator based in the Tampa Bay area that provides mentorship and resources to early-stage software and security ventures.
The details
The platform aggregates disparate security signals, including phishing test results, training completion data, and login credentials, into a unified interface. By applying machine learning models to this stream of information, the software performs automated triage of security threats. This approach aims to reduce the manual labor required by security personnel to identify and address the most critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Timeline
December 2024 - early 2025: Guardare participated in the Tampa Bay Wave cybersecurity accelerator.
June 2025: The company had sold $5.1 million in equity.
July 2025: Commercial sales of the platform officially commenced.
October 7, 2026: Guardare filed an equity sale report with the SEC.
The Tech Race
Guardare’s expansion follows its participation in the Tampa Bay Wave cybersecurity accelerator, marking a shift from the firm’s incubation phase to active market growth. The company is now competing in the crowded security orchestration space by focusing on AI-led vulnerability prioritization.
For enterprise clients, Guardare’s continued funding and integration roadmap mean more automated security triage capabilities across their existing tool stacks. The startup plans to accelerate the pace of its product development as it expands its 25-person team in the coming months.
The takeaway
Guardare’s latest capital injection marks a transition from its startup accelerator roots to a formal commercial growth phase. Interested observers should monitor the company’s integration roadmap for the addition of new enterprise security product partnerships as it builds toward a Series A.
What happens next
The company intends to increase its platform capacity by adding two or three new technology integrations each week as it prepares for a future Series A financing round.
Further reading
For more on the local security ecosystem and sector trends, see Cybersecurity.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Tampa Bay Business & Wealth.
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