Private equity firm Warburg Pincus led the initial Series A funding in the company, dubbed CrowdStrike.

The new company's chief executive, George Kurtz, announced the formation of the company on his blog, www.georgekurtz.com.

Kurtz, the former worldwide chief technology offer of McAfee, has been working with Warburg on the project since November, when the private equity firm brought him on as a "executive in residence."

Warburg's executive in residence program is a CEO-in-waiting position in which the private equity firm helps entrepreneurs incubate ideas into companies in which it will eventually invest.

CrowdStrike's other co-founders are Dmitri Alperovitch, former vice president of threat research at McAfee, and Gregg Marston, who worked as chief financial officer of Foundstone Inc, an IT security solutions provider that Kurtz sold to McAfee.

Kurtz said in his blog that his firm is developing technology that will help clients identify who is targeting them, rather than simply identify and remove pieces of malicious software from their networks.

"The industry continues to focus on the malware ... which is akin to focusing on the gun as opposed to the shooter committing the crime," he said. "The person or organization pulling the trigger (or deploying the malware) is the one that you ultimately need to focus on."

Alperovitch told Reuters that the company hopes to release its first products in late 2012.

(Reporting By Jim Finkle; Editing by Gary Hill)

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