NowSecure, which pioneered the mobile security industry and helps the world's largest financial, healthcare and governmental institutions protect their data on mobile devices, today announced that it has completed a $12.5 million Series A financing round. In conjunction with the fundraising and renewed focus on providing a comprehensive mobile security platform, the company -- originally founded in 2009 as viaForensics -- is also introducing new corporate and product branding.

The financing was led by Baird Capital's Venture Capital group, with participation from existing investor Jump Capital and new investor Math Venture Partners.

'The recent trend towards BYOD and customer-owned phones makes our tools more essential than ever to help enterprises reduce their risk of data theft. This round of funding will allow us to greatly accelerate our product development progress,' stated Andrew Hoog, Co-founder. 'Unlike traditional mobile security offerings that simply scan for known malicious code, NowSecure is a truly comprehensive security platform for managing mobile risk. We actually identify vulnerabilities before they become a problem, through forensics, security testing, malware analysis, endpoint protection and ultimately mobile intel data.'

'We are thrilled to be investing behind the NowSecure team,' said Jim Pavlik, Baird Capital Partner and new member of NowSecure's Board of Directors. 'In order to address the growing data security vulnerabilities presented by widespread smartphone and tablet adoption, NowSecure has developed an innovative suite of 'mobile-first' solutions to help organizations and their employees better identify and manage their security risks.'

NowSecure was launched as viaForensics in 2009 by Hoog along with Chee-Young Kim. Today the company's clients include four of the five largest banks and large corporations across industries including finance, defense and healthcare.

Product offerings include NowSecure Mobile, (formerly viaProtect) which users can download for free to secure their Android or iOS device and provides organizations with enterprise-level mobile threat intelligence and vulnerability management; NowSecure App Testing, (formerly viaLab) which provides automated static and dynamic testing on the security of custom and third party mobile apps; and NowSecure Forensics (formerly viaExtract), which helps provide access to and analysis of critical data on mobile devices. Last month, NowSecure announced a new Community Edition of its NowSecure App Testing tool, allowing developers to perform advance testing on their apps to uncover potential weaknesses before they are released.

More about NowSecure Mobile

The data on mobile devices is valuable. Bring your own device (BYOD) creates a mutual interest for enterprises and employees to secure mobile devices. NowSecure Mobile is collaborative mobile security for your enterprise, your employees and your customers. It provides your enterprise with key security features such as aggregate and individual risk scores, alerts and policy enforcement, while simultaneously educating your employees about mobile security issues and easy to follow steps to secure their device -- all in real-time. NowSecure Mobile supports a customizable dashboard to organize all mobile devices including aggregate security data, reporting and alerts.

NowSecure Mobile is also available in a free version for consumers on Apple or Android mobile devices. The app (previously viaProtect) received an Editor's Choice Award from PC Magazine earlier this year.

NowSecure Inc., based in Oak Park, Illinois, was formed in 2009 with a mission to advance mobile security worldwide. It has grown over three hundred percent since 2012 and provides mobile security insights to Fortune 1000 companies and end users from 188 countries. With BYOD blurring the line between what is personal and corporate, NowSecure's cloud-based mobile security platform provides real-time visibility and remediation of security flaws on mobile devices for both individuals and enterprises.