Casey Ellis worked in security testing, where he and Serg Belokamen sold testing one day at a time at about A$2,000 a day. They built Bugcrowd to flip that model so companies pay for bugs found, while testers build public reputations.
Bugcrowd launched in Sydney in 2012 through the Startmate accelerator. In 2013 Ellis moved to Silicon Valley to be near customers and closed a $1.6 million seed round led by Rally Ventures. Belokamen stayed in Australia and left, and Chris Raethke joined as a co-founder.
Costanoa Ventures led a $6 million Series A in 2015 and Blackbird Ventures a $15 million Series B in April 2016. Triangle Peak Partners led a $26 million Series C in March 2018, and Rally Ventures led a $30 million Series D in April 2020.
Western Union ran a program with Bugcrowd in 2015. In 2018 Ellis co-created disclose.io, and in 2020 Bugcrowd helped NAB launch a bug bounty. The company bought Informer in May 2024 and Mayhem Security in 2025.