news 
Hunted Labs lands $3M to find suspicious open source contributors
Former NSA deputy director George Barnes has made his first investment as a venture capitalist for his new job at the VC incubation studio Red Cell Partners. He has led a $3 million seed deal in an open-source cybersecurity startup called Hunted Labs.
Barnes spent his entire 35-year career at the National Security Agency, starting as an engineer and traveling to various locations throughout the world. He worked as deputy director from 2017 to 2023. During that time, the agency positioned itself to effectively infiltrate adversaries, he explained. This ability to hack “really prepares you to be a better defender,” he said, emphasizing why the NSA is so skilled at identifying vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits.
It was this experience that led him to Hunted Labs, whose brainchild is Hayden Smith. Smith previously worked on DevOps and cybersecurity for various Defense Department projects; during his last project with the government, he was working on the DoD’s Platform One initiative. He is a co-founder of Hunted Labs, along with security engineer Tim Barone, who also has ties to the DoD, and Amanda Aguayoco, Smith’s wife.
The startup offers more traditional open-source software threat management services, such as identifying used software and detecting vulnerabilities in code. It faces competition from well-established firms like Black Duck Software, Mend.io, and Snyk.
In an interview, Barnes emphasized that Hunted Labs is recognized by many individuals within the massive Defense Department, so they do not require traditional warm introductions to government buyers. “They are respected professionals in their own right, which opens doors,” he added.
Hunted Labs also provides services for managing the threat posed by open-source software. In this area, it has plenty of competition from established companies like Black Duck Software, Mend.io, and Snyk.
In a brief statement, Barnes stated that Hunted Labs’ success in the Defense Department comes not from Red Cell Partners’ network but rather through DoD connections of Smith, Barone, and Aguayoco.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/hunted-labs-lands-3m-to-find-suspicious-open-source-contributors/
