In a major boost for cybersecurity innovation, Hunted Labs has raised $3 million in seed funding to help organizations identify risky contributors behind open-source software (OSS). The investment marks the first venture deal for George Barnes, the former NSA deputy director, now Cyber President at the venture studio Red Cell Partners.
Barnes, who spent 35 years at the National Security Agency, says his experience penetrating adversaries’ networks shaped his understanding of defense. “If you know how to break in, you know where the vulnerabilities are,” Barnes shared. That unique perspective ultimately drew him to Hunted Labs, a startup founded by cybersecurity expert Hayden Smith.
Smith, a former DevOps and cybersecurity lead on major Department of Defense (DoD) projects, came up with the idea while working on Platform One — the DoD’s massive software factory. Designed to speed up app deployment for military programmers, Platform One leans heavily on pre-approved cloud and open-source tools. But one pressing issue stood out: Who’s actually writing this open-source code?
“We had no visibility into the backgrounds or potential foreign ties of the contributors behind the software we depended on,” Smith explained. The lack of tools to assess these risks at scale sparked the birth of Hunted Labs.
The startup offers a unique solution — providing organizations with the ability to trace OSS contributors, verify backgrounds, and flag suspicious actors. The need for such a service became even clearer after the 2024 xz Utils backdoor incident, where a sophisticated threat actor infiltrated a critical Linux tool after years of building trust.
Hoping to commercialize this background-checking capability, Smith began cold-emailing investors. To his surprise, Barnes responded. Impressed with the concept, Barnes invited Hunted Labs into Red Cell’s three-month paid “discovery” program — a hands-on incubator model where the VC acts more like a co-founder, offering deep mentorship and strategic support.
The gamble paid off. By the end of the program, Hunted Labs had refined its product and closed customer deals, leading to Red Cell’s $3 million seed investment. Smith noted the startup already scored a $1.79 million contract with the Space Development Agency (SDA), solidifying early market traction.
Interestingly, the SDA deal came not through Red Cell but through Smith’s and his co-founders’ extensive DoD networks. Co-founder Tim Barone, another veteran of defense cybersecurity projects, and Amanda Aguayoco, Smith’s wife, round out the founding team.
“They’re already respected figures in the defense world,” Barnes said. “That recognition opens doors that most Silicon Valley startups struggle to get through.”
With deep government connections, Hunted Labs stands apart from typical venture-backed defense tech startups. Its growing reputation is already drawing attention across agencies increasingly worried about the integrity of their software supply chains.
Beyond contributor vetting, Hunted Labs also offers traditional OSS security tools — scanning software for vulnerabilities and mapping software usage. However, the company faces established players in this space, including Black Duck Software, Mend.io, and Snyk.
Still, with cyberattacks growing more sophisticated, Hunted Labs’ unique focus on the people behind the code — not just the code itself — could prove to be its competitive edge.
