Cyber security, AI and cloud deal roundup, CIOSEA News, ETCIO SEA
The month of May also saw its fair share of investments in cloud, data, cyber, and AI startups. Both fundings and acquisitions took place in healthy numbers. One of the biggest funding rounds was CoreWeave, the leading specialised cloud provider for AI, securing $1.1 billion in new funding. Cyber startup Wiz also raised $1 billion in a private funding round that valued the four-year old cloud cyber security company at $12 billion.
Meanwhile in acquisitions, Synopsys, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. and Francisco Partners, two global private equity firms, for the sale of its Software Integrity Group business in a transaction with a total value of up to $2.1 billion. In other news, CyberArk, the identity security company, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Venafi, a leader in machine identity management, from Thoma Bravo for $1.54 Bn.
Here’s a quick look at some of the funding deals and acquisitions that transpired in May in the cloud, data, and AI space.
Fundings/ Investments
Corelight secures $150 Million in Series E funding
Corelight, a leader in open network detection and response (NDR), raised $150 million in Series E investment led by its first capital investor, Accel, with additional strategic investment from Cisco Investments and CrowdStrike Falcon Fund. This funding will accelerate Corelight’s AI-driven security innovation, cloud-native security capabilities, and data fusion partnerships with leading cybersecurity platforms to deliver transformative capabilities for SOC analysts and incident response teams.
End-to-end cybersecurity compliance platform company Apptega raises $15 Mn in funding
Apptega, an industry-leading end-to-end cybersecurity compliance platform company, raised $15 million in growth capital comprised of third-party debt and growth equity from Mainsail Partners, a growth equity firm that invests in fast-growing software companies. The investment will go toward development of its continuous security and compliance platform, which is among few purpose-built for service providers, such as MSSPs and MDR companies.
CoreWeave raises $1.1 Bn in Series C funding to drive next generation of cloud computing
CoreWeave, the leading specialised cloud provider for AI, secured $1.1 billion in new funding, led by Coatue, with participation from Magnetar who led the last primary round, as well as Altimeter Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Lykos Global Management. New funding will be used to support the rapid growth across all areas of the business, and CoreWeave’s expansion into new geographic regions to meet the explosive demand for GPU accelerated cloud infrastructure worldwide.
API security company Traceable AI secures $30 Million funding
Traceable AI, the industry’s leading API security company, announced a $30 million strategic investment from a group of investors, including Citi Ventures – the venture arm of Citigroup, lead investor IVP, Geodesic Capital, Sorenson Capital, and Unusual Ventures. This strategic investment highlights the growing recognition of API security as a critical challenge for enterprises across industries, particularly within the heavily-regulated financial sector.
Oasis secures $35M Series A funding to automate non-human identity security
Oasis Security, the leading provider of Non-human Identity Management (NHIM) solutions, raised a Series A Extension of $35 million, just three months after emerging from stealth. The round was co-led by existing investors Accel, Cyberstarts and Sequoia Capital, doubling the company’s Series A valuation. Oasis has raised a total of $75 million to date. Oasis plans to leverage new funds to further invest in its R&D and Go-To-Market functions, accelerating the execution of its ambitious product roadmap and bringing its game-changing platform to more organisations.
LayerX Security raises $26M funding for its browser security platform
LayerX, pioneer of the LayerX Browser Security platform, announced $26 million in Series A funding led by Glilot+, the early-growth fund of Glilot Capital Partners, with participation from Dell Technologies Capital and other investors. The new capital will be used for corporate growth across talent and increasing global market presence.
Ransomware defense company Mimic emerges from stealth with $27M seed funding
Mimic, the ransomware defense company, announced that it has emerged from stealth and that it has secured a seed round of funding of $27 million led by Ballistic Ventures, with investment from Menlo Ventures, Team8, Wing Venture Capital and Shield Capital.
StrongDM secures $34 Million Series C funding to expand into Europe and Asia
StrongDM, the Zero Trust privileged access company announced the closure of a $34 million Series C funding round led by Anchor Capital, with participation from new investors Capital One Ventures, Cisco Investments, Frontline Ventures, and Singtel Innov8, as well as existing investors including GV, Sequoia Capital, and True Ventures. This investment underscores StrongDM’s commitment to reshaping enterprise security with its revolutionary Zero Trust privileged access management (PAM) solution.
Dynamic identity and security platform Anetac raises $16M in funding
Anetac announced a funding investment totaling $16 million which will bring necessary disruption to the identity and security market by providing an intuitive, rapidly deployable SaaS solution. With this latest round of funding led by Liberty Global and additional funding provided by Shield Capital and The General Partnership, along with Anetac CEO Tim Eades and cybersecurity expert Jason Witty, Anetac will continue to focus on crafting a seamless business experience to elevate its service offerings to cater to security leaders’ needs in the modern threat landscape.
Nudge Security welcomes Forgepoint Capital to seed round, bringing funding to $16.5 Mn
Nudge Security, the leading provider of modern SaaS security and governance, announced new funding from Forgepoint Capital, which joined Ballistic Ventures in bringing the fast-growing startup’s seed funding to $16.5 million.
Cyber startup Wiz raises $1 billion in private funds
U.S.-Israeli startup Wiz raised $1 billion in a private funding round that values the four-year old cloud cyber security company at $12 billion, as it seeks to do more acquisitions. Wiz, which has raised $1.9 billion since its founding in 2020, said it plans to use the finds for future merger & acquisition efforts, talent recruitment and product development.
TXOne Network raises $51 Mn in total in Series B extension round funding
TXOne Networks, a leader in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) security, secured $51 million in its Series B extension round of financing. In addition to TGVest Capital, the lead investor of the B round, Pegatron Group, CDIB Capital Group and CDIB-Innolux II L.P. are continuing to invest. New investors include the Taiwania Capital and Applied Ventures ITIC Innovation Fund, L.P. (AVITIC), a joint fund of Applied Ventures, LLC and ITIC-Taiwan (Industrial Technology Investment Corporation).
Token Security emerges from stealth with $7M funding
Token Security emerged from stealth, launching its machine-first identity security platform and announcing $7 million in Seed funding led by TLV Partners and SNR as well as a range of angel investors including Shlomo Kramer, one of the founding fathers of cybersecurity in Israel.
Blackwell Security raises $13Mn in funding
Blackwell Security, a provider of specialised cybersecurity solutions tailored for the healthcare sector, announced a $13M round of funding co-led by General Catalyst and Rally Ventures to help bolster security operations in healthcare. The funding will be instrumental in expanding their Managed Healthcare Extended Detection and Response (MHXDR) offering, purpose-built for the needs and complexities of securing patient data and defending patient care for healthcare companies. These new funds will also be used to broaden their offerings within the U.S. market.
Data platform WEKA gets $140M in Series E funding at $1.6B valuation
WekaIO, the AI-native data platform company, has raised $140 million in an oversubscribed Series E funding round comprised of a combined primary and secondary transaction led by Valor Equity Partners, a previous investor in the company. The round brings WEKA’s post-money valuation to $1.6 billion. The funds will augment the company’s considerable cash reserves, giving it ample options for how it can scale its business rapidly to meet accelerating global demand for AI-native data infrastructure while expanding its investments in developing its data platform software and providing liquidity to WEKA employees.
Vercel raises $250M to accelerate AI and security innovation
Vercel, the leading Frontend Cloud platform, announced that it has secured $250M in Series E funding at a valuation of $3.25B. The investment round was spearheaded by existing investor Accel, with participation from other existing investors including CRV, GV, Notable Capital (previously GGV Capital), Bedrock, Geodesic Capital, Tiger Global, 8VC, and SV Angel.
Cloud analytics firm Sigma raises $200 Million in Series D funding
Sigma, the first and only cloud analytics solution built natively for cloud scale, raised $200M in Series D financing to continue transforming BI through its innovations in AI infrastructure, data application development, enterprise-wide collaboration, and business user adoption. Spark Capital and Avenir Growth Capital co-led the round with additional investments from new investor NewView Capital. All previous investors participated in the round, including Snowflake Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, XN, and Altimeter Capital.
Alkira raises $100 Million in Series C Funding to simplify,secure and scale critical network infrastructure
Alkira, the leader in on-demand network infrastructure as-a-service, raised a $100 million Series C funding round, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to $176 million. The round was led by Tiger Global Management, a leading global investment firm, with additional investment from Dallas Venture Capital, Geodesic Capital and NextEquity Partners; and participation from existing investors, including, Kleiner Perkins, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Sequoia Capital.
WitnessAI raises $27.5 Mn to enable safe use of AI
WitnessAI, creator of the first enablement platform for safe AI use, today announced a $27.5 million Series A round, co-led by GV and Ballistic Ventures. The company had previously been incubated by Ballistic Ventures, beginning in 2023. The funding will be used to accelerate development of new AI guardrails and build out a global sales and support organisation.
Cybersecurity firm SOCRadar raises $25.2M in funding
SOCRadar, a leading provider of enterprise-grade, end-to-end threat intelligence and brand protection, announced the successful completion of its Series B funding round, raising $25.2 million. The round was led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Oxx, reflecting investor confidence in SOCRadar’s innovative approach to cybersecurity.
BMW i Ventures announces investment in cloud simulation firm Simr
BMW i Ventures announced an investment in Simr, a cloud simulation company that gives engineers a single platform for using any compute resources with any leading simulation tool. Simr secured $20M in Series A funding led by Uncorrelated Ventures, with investments also from BMW i Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital.The funding will drive further expansion into North America and Europe, while also growing the company’s engineering and product innovation teams.
Finout raises $26 Mn in Series B funding
Finout, the FinOps-for-enterprise company, announced a $26.3 million Series B funding round led by Red Dot Capital with the participation of Maor Investments and existing investors – Team8, Pitango First, and Jibe Ventures. Finout’s complete FinOps platform is now used by leading global brands to optimise cloud expenditure and allocate costs across all cloud providers and services. The funding brings the total raised by Finout to $45 million.
Cloud security startup Averlon comes out of stealth with $8 Mn in funding
Cloud security startup Averlon has secured $8M funding led by Voyager Capital with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Outpost Ventures, along with several prominent CISOs and industry leaders. This latest investment brings the total funding to $10.5 million.
Firefly raises $23 Mn in Series A funding for multi-cloud control plane
Firefly, the Multi-Cloud Control Plane solution that enables organisations to solve cloud complexity, raised $23 million in Series A funding. This round was led by Vertex and included participation from Hanaco, SoftBank, InMotion Ventures (the investment arm of JLR) and Redseed. The company plans to use this fresh capital to expand its team and enhance its support for additional use cases faced by Platform Engineering, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams.
Mergers/ Acquisitions
Permira to acquire majority position in BioCatch at $1.3bn valuation
BioCatch, the global leader in digital fraud detection and financial crime prevention powered by behavioral biometric intelligence, announced that Permira Growth Opportunities II, a fund advised by global private equity firm Permira, has agreed to acquire a majority position in the Company. Alongside the Fund’s investment, existing shareholders Sapphire Ventures and Macquarie Capital will also increase their investments in BioCatch. The transaction is expected to accelerate the company’s global expansion, advance its innovative product roadmap and support its continued overall growth.
Synopsys to sell its Software Integrity Business to Clearlake Capital and Francisco Partners
Synopsys, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. and Francisco Partners, two global private equity firms, for the sale of its Software Integrity Group business in a transaction with a total value of up to $2.1 billion, including up to $475 million in cash payable upon Francisco Partners and Clearlake achieving a specified rate of return in connection with one or more liquidity transactions. Upon completion of the transaction, the business will emerge as a newly independent application security testing software provider.
Accenture to acquire Parsionate
Accenture agreed to acquire Parsionate, a data consultancy specialized in data products and modern data foundation services, ranging from data strategy development to technology implementation. With deep industry-specific capabilities in the retail and industrial sector, as well as in the consumer goods and life sciences industries, the acquisition of Parsionate will strengthen Accenture’s data and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in Europe and enhance the company’s ability to deliver innovative, data-driven solutions to clients in these markets.
Akamai Technologies announces intent to acquire API security firm Noname Security for $450 Mn
Akamai Technologies, Inc., the cloud company that powers and protects life online, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire application programming interface (API) security company, Noname Security for $450 Mn. Noname, one of the top API security vendors in the market, will enhance Akamai’s existing API Security solution and accelerate its ability to meet growing customer demand and market requirements as the use of APIs continues to expand.
Synechron acquires Australia based iGreenData
Synechron, a leading global digital transformation consulting firm focused on financial services and technology organisations, announced its acquisition of iGreenData, a modern, data-centric digital solutions company founded in 2018. This acquisition enhances Synechron’s leadership in digital transformation by combining their agile, creative approach with iGreenData’s specialised skills in cloud technology and lean data engineering practices.
Security firms LogRhythm and Exabeam announce intent to merge
LogRhythm, the company helping security teams stop breaches by turning disconnected data and signals into trustworthy insights, and Exabeam, a global cybersecurity leader that delivers AI-driven security operations, announced that the companies have entered into a merger agreement. The combined company will leverage the complementary strengths from each organisation to take AI-driven security operations to new heights.
CyberArk to acquire machine identity management leader Venafi from Thoma Bravo for $1.54 Bn
CyberArk, the identity security company, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Venafi, a leader in machine identity management, from Thoma Bravo for $1.54 Bn. This acquisition will combine Venafi’s best-in-class machine identity management capabilities with CyberArk’s leading identity security capabilities to establish a unified platform for end-to-end machine identity security at enterprise scale.
Cloudflare acquires BastionZero to add zero trust infrastructure access controls
Cloudflare, Inc., the leading connectivity cloud company, announced the acquisition of BastionZero, a Zero Trust infrastructure access platform, to further strengthen remote access to core IT systems for customers of Cloudflare One, the company’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform. Combined with existing Cloudflare One capabilities, the acquisition of BastionZero gives IT and security teams Zero Trust controls for infrastructure like servers, Kubernetes clusters, and databases.
