07 Apr VC Report, Vol. 5, No. 1: Cybersecurity Venture Capital Investments In The Latest Quarter

Startups and emerging players with fresh funding in the latest quarter

– Steve Morgan, Editor-in-Chief

Sausalito, Calif. – Apr. 6, 2020

When we think of cybersecurity investing, it is easy to think of splashy IPOs and name-brand mergers. However, as the statistics from last year demonstrate, private equity and venture capital is a core component of this market. In 2019, billions of dollars in venture capital was funneled into the cybersecurity market. Thus far, it looks like this trend will continue through 2020. Indeed, this investment makes sense: Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that the global cost of cybercrime will reach $6 trillion by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

Despite damage to the markets in late-March 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cybersecurity industry still saw strong investment throughout the first quarter. Read on to learn about the biggest deals in cybersecurity financing this quarter.

DEAL FLOW

March

Mar. 31. New York-based Axonius, a 3-year-old cybersecurity asset management startup, announced it has closed on $58 million in Series C funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which included participation from existing investors OpenView, Bessemer Venture Partners, YL Ventures, Vertex and WTI.

Mar. 26. Sepio Systems secured an additional $4 million in funding from Munich Re Ventures and Hanaco Ventures, adding to the cybersecurity hardware device company’s Series A totaling $10.5 million for the round.

Mar. 25. Stellar Cyber, which provides the Open-XDR security platform, has raised $7.1 million in an expanded Series A financing round. The funding brings Stellar Cyber’s total financing to date to $21.8 million.

Mar. 24. Horangi, a Singapore-based cybersecurity startup, has raised a $20 million Series B round led by Southeast Asian private equity firm Provident Growth. The round was joined by return backers Monk’s Hill Ventures, Right Click Capital, and Genesis Alternative Ventures, a Southeast Asian venture debt fund.

Mar. 24. Arkose Labs, provider of online fraud and abuse prevention technology, announced it has raised an additional $22 million in Series B funding led by Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, as well as participation from existing investors PayPal and USVP.

Mar. 20. SecuLetter Co., Ltd, closed $8 million in a Series B funding round. The company’s Series B funding round led Riyadh Valley Company (RVC), a Saudi Arabian venture capital firm, KDB Bank (Korea Development Bank), Korea Investment Partners (KIP), and UTC Investment. SecuLetter’s valuation is estimated to be US$38 million.

Mar. 17. Axis Security emerged from stealth with $17 million in funding to launch a purpose-built, cloud-native security and analytics platform. Ten Eleven Ventures’ Alex Doll led the Series A round.

Mar. 16. Boston-based cybersecurity startup ZeroNorth raised $10 million in what the company is calling a “Series A+” round led by Crosslink Capital. Existing investors ClearSky, Rally Ventures and Petrillo Capital also participated in the round.

Mar. 16. HashiCorp announced that it has raised $175 million in Series E financing from Franklin Templeton Investments, reaching a valuation of $5.1 billion.

Mar. 13. Perimeter 81 completed a $4.5 million Series A extension round, bringing the company’s total funding to $19.5 million. The round was led by Toba Capital, while existing investors also participated.

Mar. 11. Cybersecurity startup Arctic Wolf raised $60 million in its Series D round, bringing its total funding to more than $148 million. The latest round was led by Blue Cloud Ventures and Stereo Capital.

Mar. 6. Cybersecurity platform startup Ordr Inc. has raised an additional $6 million. The funding was an extension of the Series B round it announced last December. Joining the round were the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.

Mar. 6. Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo announced that it has raised a $60 million Series B funding round led by its existing investors, who were joined by new strategic investor ABB Technology Ventures.

Mar. 5. Mailprotector raised $5 million in growth equity funding from Ballast Point Ventures.

February

Feb. 28. DeepSig reported raising a $5 million Series A round led by Leawood Venture Capital. Other investors included Scout Ventures, Blu Venture Investors, and Lockheed Martin Ventures.

Feb. 21. Polyverse Corporation received $8 million in new funding. The round was led by existing investors and Japanese security company Soliton Systems KK.

Feb. 19. SentinelOne raised $200 million in Series E funding led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, with participation from Tiger Global Management, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Vista Public Strategies of Vista Equity Partners, Third Point Ventures, and previous investors. The round elevates SentinelOne’s valuation to $1.1 billion.

Feb. 18. Huntress raised $18 million in Series A funding. The round was led by ForgePoint Capital.

Feb. 18. Enveil announced that it has secured $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by C5 Capital with contributions from key partners including Mastercard, Capital One Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, and 1843 Capital.

Feb. 14. Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Cyfirma raised an undisclosed amount in Series A investment from early-growth private equity fund Z3Partners. This new investment, which comes just four months after Cyfirma’s separation from Antuit Group in October 2019, brings the company’s total funding to $8 million.

Feb. 13. Praetorian, a cybersecurity company on a mission to make the world safer and more secure, announced a $10 million Series A round of funding. The investors include Bill Wood Ventures and McKinsey & Company.

Feb. 12. Model9 announced a $9 million Series A financing round. Intel Capital led the round with help from existing investors, including StageOne, North First Ventures and Glenrock Israel. The company reports it has now raised almost $13 million.

Feb. 12. Deep Instinct announced $43 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Millennium New Horizons, with participation from Unbound, the London-based investment firm founded by Shravin Mittal, along with LG, and existing investor NVIDIA.

Feb. 12. CybelAngel closed $36 million in Series B funding. Prime Ventures led the round alongside TempoCap, with participation from Bpifrance and Open CNP.

Feb. 11. Cysiv announced it has closed a $26 million Series A funding round. The round was led by San Francisco-based ForgePoint Capital, with participation from Trend Forward Capital.

Feb. 11. Sixgill has raised a $15 million funding round led by Sonae IM, a fund based in Portugal, and London-based REV Venture Partners. Crowdfunding platform OurCrowd also participated in the round, as did previous investors Elron and Terra Venture Partners.

Feb. 7. Automox, the cloud-native cyber hygiene platform provider, announced that it has raised $30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), with participation from CRV, TechOperators, and CrowdStrike, which is investing through the Falcon Fund in partnership with Accel.

Feb. 6. Netskope has raised $340 million from new investor Sequoia Capital Global Equities. The Series G funding round will allow Netskope to achieve a valuation of nearly $3 billion.

Feb. 6. Sysnet Global Solutions secured a growth equity investment. The investment was led by FTV Capital, and joined by equal investor True Wind Capital.

January 

Jan. 29. Concentric came out of stealth, announcing that it has raised $7.5 million from Clear Ventures, Engineering Capital, Homebrew and Core Ventures.

Jan. 28. Persona, an identity verification startup, announced its Series A funding round with $17.5 million raised from investment firms such as Coatue and First Round Capital.

Jan. 28. Serverless computing startup Nuweba Labs Ltd. has raised $10.2 million in an expanded seed funding round. Blumberg Capital led the latest investment, together with Magma Partners and existing investor Target Global. The new funding brings Nuweba’s total amount raised to $15 million, following an earlier $4.2 million seed round in February 2019.

Jan. 28. Securiti.ai, a San Jose startup, announced a $50 million Series B financing round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Mayfield.

Jan. 28. Defendify, an all-in-one SaaS cybersecurity platform developer, announced that it has closed its $2 million seed round. Existing investor 3dot6 Ventures doubled down and led the round with participation from York IE, Maine Technology Institute (MTI), Maine Venture Fund (MVF), FreshTracks Capital, and Wasabi Ventures.

Jan. 23. CloudKnox Security announced that it closed $12 million in a new round of funding. Led by Sorenson Ventures with participation from early investors, including ClearSky Security, Dell Technologies Capital and Foundation Capital, the round brings CloudKnox’s total funding to $22.75M.

Jan. 23. Jerusalem Venture Partners led a $5 million funding round in Vicarius, together with Innovation Hub and Goldbell.

Jan. 22. Sysdig, Inc. announced that it raised $70 million in a Series E funding round led by Insight Partners with participation from previous investors, Bain Capital Ventures and Accel. Glynn Capital also joined this round, along with Goldman Sachs.

Jan. 22. Data security startup Privafy officially entered the market with $22 million in minority investment.

Jan. 22. Anchore, Inc. announced the close of $20 million in Series A funding led by SignalFire.

Jan. 21. Snyk, a developer-focused security startup, announced a $150 million Series C funding round. This brings the company’s total investment to $250 million alongside reports that put the company’s valuation at more than $1 billion.

Jan. 21. OpenView led a $15 million Series B financing round in Intezer.

Jan. 14. Qingteng Cloud Security, a Beijing-based technology firm specializing in server security, has secured a $44 million Series B round of financing led by Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited.

Jan. 14. Trusona secured $20 million in additional financing led by growth equity firm Georgian Partners. Prior investors including Kleiner Perkins, M12, OurCrowd and Seven Peaks Ventures also participated in the round.

Jan. 13. China’s cybersecurity provider Beijing SkyGuard Network Technologies raised around $14 million in series B funding led by state-owned Beijing Yizhuang Investment Holding, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Fund.

Jan. 7. Data security startup DataCloak closed a Series A funding round worth $13 million. The round was led by Jeneration Capital, Co-Stone Asset Management, and Green Pine Capital Partners. Previous investor Matrix Partners China also took part.

VC Report Archives

– Steve Morgan is founder and Editor-in-Chief at Cybersecurity Ventures.

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