Northport cybersecurity company Code DX wins $2M capital contest

Code Dx Inc., a Long Island cybersecurity company, has bested rival startups to win a $2 million "Shark Tank"-style venture capital contest.

The Northport company, which currently has 13 employees, plans to use the windfall to separate from its corporate patron, move its offices out of shared space and add about seven employees over the next year, scaling up sales, marketing and technical support, said chief executive Anita D'Amico.

Fulton, Maryland-based venture capital firm DataTribe said it received hundreds of submissions from companies pitching their business plans in its second annual global competition.

The three finalists — Code Dx, Bloomfield Robotics of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and SecurityAdvisor of Sunnyvale, California — presented their companies' business plans last month at City Garage, a bus-depot-turned-workplace for artisans and entrepreneurs, in Baltimore.

Four-year-old DataTribe, founded by financiers, entrepreneurs and former U.S. intelligence operatives, invests in cybersecurity, big data and analytics startups.

Mike Janke, co-founder and managing director of DataTribe, said Code Dx is at the right place at the right time.

"They're in one of the newest, earliest and hottest markets," he said. "A couple of years from now, you could wake up and have 300 employees. It's a great story coming from Long Island."

D'Amico said she made a 15-minute pitch about her company, which makes software to detect security vulnerabilities, and fielded questions from the panel of judges in winning the DataTribe Challenge.

"It was unanimous by all six judges," she said.

D'Amico, a former information-warfare team leader at Northrop Grumman Corp., said DataTribe would receive preferred stock in Code Dx and a seat on the newly formed board of directors.

Code Dx is remaining in Northport, but moving out of office space it shared with closely held Applied Visions Inc., which spun off the company in 2015, D'Amico said. DataTribe also will provide space in its Maryland office for new hires by Code Dx.

"We've completely separated from Applied Visions," she said, though Frank Zinghini, the owner and CEO of software developer Applied Visions, retains a stake in and a board seat on Code Dx.

As winner of the competition, Code Dx also eventually could be in line for a follow-on investment of up to $6.5 million from DataTribe and AllegisCyber Capital, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.