It’s been a busy week for cloud-based cybersecurity startups in the Bay Area and a big year for the industry in general. The mass adoption of work-from-home policies at many major companies has sparked an increase in demand for cloud-based security solutions around the world.
The latest Bay Area company to add to the industry’s momentum is Menlo Security. On Thursday, the Mountain View-based company announced that it raised $100 million in fresh capital by way of its Series E. The new funding will be used to accelerate the company’s go-to-market initiatives and increase the size of its team.
Menlo’s cloud-based security solution isolates malware threats from the web, documents and email for businesses of any size without the use of endpoint software. The company’s platform provides enterprises with real-time visibility and control of their users, data and applications.
“Traditional detect and response approaches that have formed the foundation of cybersecurity investments for the past two decades have largely failed to protect against an onslaught of web and email-based threats,” CEO and co-founder Amir Ben-Efraim said in a statement. “The internet is where work happens — in browsers, shared files and SaaS applications — making these critical business workflows a massive target for malicious attacks.”
Connecting new populations of remote users to enterprise networks oftentimes overwhelms traditional VPN infrastructure and slows down internet performance, according to Ben-Afraim.
To combat this, Menlo’s isolation core technology enables companies to separate their networks from the public web while still maintaining internet connectivity.
Following the latest round, the company’s valuation is now on the cusp of $1 billion, according to Ben-Afraim. Its valuation stands at a reported $800 million.
“We are on a mission to empower organizations with the essential cloud security platform they need to outsmart and eliminate threats to protect productivity.” Ben-Afraim said.
The company expects to grow its workforce by 30 percent to 50 percent in the near future with a focus on expanding the size of its sales team, Ben-Afraim told Crunchbase News.
Vista Equity Partners led the round, which included participation from Neuberger Berman funds, JP Morgan and General Catalyst.
