Cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) security firm Netskope, Inc. has raised $75 million Series D in a round led by Iconiq Capital that included previous investors Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and the Social + Capital Partnership.

Founded in 2012, Netskope describes itself as a cloud access security broker with its Netskope Active Platform providing discovery, deep visibility, and granular control of sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud apps.

Customers can use the platform to direct usage, protect sensitive data, and ensure compliance in real-time, on any device, including native apps on mobile devices and whether on-premises or remote, and with what is claimed to be the broadest range of deployment options in the market.

Netskope’s implementation of granular control cloud app usage policies in real-time delivers a depth of choice due to it sitting in the flow of cloud network traffic. Interestingly, policies can be as precise as “Allow all Cloud Storage apps, but do not allow people in Investor Relations to share files from those apps during our company’s quiet period” or “Allow CRM apps, but alert me if people in my call centers download client contacts.”

The company also offers a service called the Cloud Confidence Index, a database of more than 10,000 enterprise cloud apps that are assessed on their enterprise-readiness.

Netskope has some impressive numbers, claiming to have grown its customer base by 500 percent in the last 12 months compared to the same period previously, complete with a 600 percent increase in revenue. Customers cover a range of industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, retail, and manufacturing brands, as well as high-tech, energy and utility companies.

“This is a pivotal moment for the industry, and further validation that ensuring secure usage of cloud services is one of the single greatest concerns for CIOs and CISOs today,” Netskope Co-Founder and Chief Executive Office Sanjay Beri said in a statement. “We founded Netskope on the premise that rapid development and adoption of cloud apps and services would bring about a new security conundrum for IT that simply couldn’t be addressed by existing tools built for on-premises apps or generic websites.”

Rainy days

The need for cloud security continues to grow as enterprises of all sizes continue to make the historic shift away from running self-hosted software in-house to the various SaaS cloud vendors that offer savings as well as innovative, on-demand cloud based services.

This is the market Netskope is tapping into, providing a level of security across the enterprise when it comes to the use of online cloud-based applications.

Including the new round Netskope has raised $131.4 million to-date.

The company said it would use the new round to expand sales, marketing, customer success, engineering and research operations worldwide.

Image credit: screenshot/ Netskope