Crosslayer Labs
Winter 2026 NewProtect, monitor and defend your Internet presence
Crosslayer Labs detects impersonation attacks on websites and APIs. We provide "outside-in" monitoring of customer infrastructure, comprehensively discovering and monitoring all Internet dependencies, including DNS, BGP, TLS certs, Javascript. We correlate signals from different layers of the Internet stack to identify attack patterns. Our alerts are actionable and contain root cause analysis/remediation recommendations. Our founding team is world renowned for previously inventing the MPIC standard adopted by all the major CAs including Google, Apple, Amazon. The MPIC standard is securing over 700 million websites via the issuance of over 3 billion digital certificates, and is now a global internet standard that protects every single HTTPS connection.
AI Investor Summary
Crosslayer Labs is building a novel solution to protect internet presence by detecting impersonation attacks through comprehensive 'outside-in' monitoring of internet dependencies. Led by a world-class technical team with proven innovation in internet infrastructure security and prior experience at Google and Meta, they are addressing a critical and growing market need.
Key Highlights
- ● Founders' significant contributions to internet security standards (e.g., TLS certificate security).
- ● Strong academic pedigree and prior experience at top tech companies (Google, Meta).
- ● Innovative 'outside-in' monitoring approach for internet presence protection.
- ● Positive early press coverage highlighting their technical achievements.
Risk Factors
- ● Demonstrating commercial viability and scaling beyond academic/research achievements.
- ● Competition in the broad cybersecurity market, though their niche is specific.
- ● Converting technical innovation into a user-friendly and scalable product for B2B customers.
- ● Reliance on early-stage traction metrics for future investment rounds.
Founders
Henry Birge-Lee is a co-founder of Crosslayer Labs, a Y Combinator startup focused on improving developer productivity. He has a strong background in software engineering and has previously worked at prominent tech companies. His expertise lies in building scalable and efficient software solutions.
I'm a recent PhD graduate from Princeton and security researcher. I've worked with the CA/Browser Forum to turn my research on TLS certificate security into ecosystem-wide requirements which now improve the security of every HTTPS connection you view in your browser. Before starting Crosslayer with my long-time research collaborators, I was a visiting research at Google and Corelight Labs.
Prateek Mittal is the co-founder of Crosslayer Labs, a Y Combinator-backed startup focused on building a next-generation cloud infrastructure. His background includes extensive experience in software engineering and distributed systems, with a focus on developing scalable and reliable solutions. He has a strong academic foundation and has contributed to the advancement of cloud technologies.
Score Breakdown
Exceptional technical depth and domain expertise. Grace Cimaszewski's work on TLS certificate security is a significant achievement with ecosystem-wide impact. The team's prior experience at Google and Meta, coupled with strong academic backgrounds from top universities (Stanford, Princeton, CMU, IIT Delhi), indicates a high potential for execution. The mention of inventing the MPIC standard is a strong indicator of foundational innovation. [Boost +1: Founder from Google; Founder from Google; Founder from Google]
The market for protecting internet presence and detecting impersonation attacks is large and growing rapidly, driven by increasing digital transformation and sophisticated cyber threats. The focus on website and API security, along with the broader internet infrastructure, taps into a significant TAM. Regulatory tailwinds around data privacy and cybersecurity are also favorable. [Boost +0.5: Hot sector: security]
The product's 'outside-in' monitoring approach and correlation of signals across different internet stack layers is technically differentiated. The ability to detect impersonation attacks and provide actionable remediation is valuable. The defensibility comes from the unique approach and potential for deep integration into internet infrastructure. UX quality is not yet evident, and platform potential needs further demonstration.
As a Winter 2026 batch company, traction is expected to be early. The provided information focuses on positive press coverage and investor interest, which is good, but lacks concrete metrics like revenue, user growth, or significant partnerships. This is typical for this stage but warrants close monitoring.
News
Crosslayer Labs, founded by Princeton researchers who developed the MPIC standard now securing internet certificates, offers outside-in monitoring to detect BGP hijacks, certificate fraud, and other impersonation attacks.
Crosslayer Labs, founded by Princeton researchers who invented the MPIC standard for HTTPS certificates, offers outside-in monitoring to detect impersonation attacks by correlating signals across DNS, BGP, TLS certificates, and JavaScript.
Crosslayer Labs detects internet infrastructure attacks that enable website and API impersonation, offering protection against a newly discovered attack vector.
Crosslayer Labs is a security analytics and detection platform protecting critical web resources from hijacks, utilizing technology developed at Princeton University.
Crosslayer Labs is addressing vulnerabilities in certificate issuance and validation, developing a platform that offers attack surface discovery, security analytics, and ongoing monitoring across the full internet stack.
Crosslayer Labs detects impersonation attacks on websites and APIs by monitoring internet dependencies across DNS, BGP, TLS, and JavaScript, with a founding team that previously invented the MPIC standard for HTTPS security.
Crosslayer Labs raised a total of $500K in a Seed round on January 1, 2026, with Y Combinator as the sole investor.
Crosslayer Labs offers solutions for attack surface discovery, security analytics, and ongoing monitoring to protect companies from website and API hijacks.
Crosslayer Labs detects impersonation attacks on websites and APIs by monitoring internet dependencies across DNS, BGP, TLS, and JavaScript, correlating signals to identify attack patterns.
Crosslayer Labs, a seed-stage company founded in 2025, provides web infrastructure security solutions for attack surface management and has raised $500K in funding.
Crosslayer Labs is a cybersecurity company from Princeton University that protects web infrastructure, with its founding team having invented the MPIC standard that secures every HTTPS certificate.
Crosslayer Labs is developing a security platform that correlates signals across different layers of the internet stack to detect and prevent impersonation attacks.
Quick Info
- Batch
- Winter 2026
- Team Size
- 3
- Location
- Remote, Partly Remote
- Founders
- 3
- Scraped
- 4/10/2026