Hilt discloses $500,000 Pear VC pre-seed behind its Cybe launch
Founder William Cielen introduced the data security startup under its original Cybe name while reporting early commercial traction.
William Cielen publicly introduced Cybe, now known as Hilt, on February 26, 2026. The launch followed a $500,000 pre-seed investment led by Pear VC in October 2025. Cielen had accepted a place in Pear’s W26 accelerator, moved to San Francisco and begun recruiting the team.
At the launch, Cielen said the company had signed seven figures of annual recurring revenue after two months in the market. Cybe’s pitch centered on stopping a breach as suspicious activity emerged, using data access controls at the operating-system kernel. The early financing preceded Hilt’s later $4.2 million seed round led by Array Ventures.
Funding history
Sources
- William Cielen announces Cybe and USD500000 raisedlinkedin.com · Feb 26, 2026
- William Cielen describes accepting Pear VC W26 offerlinkedin.com · Dec 31, 2025
- From Ballet To Breach Prevention: How A Magician’s Son Raised $4.2M In Seed Funding For His Cybersecurity Startupnews.crunchbase.com · Oct 7, 2026
- array.vc