UPDATED 14:51 EDT / OCTOBER 25 2017

INFRA

Low-key cybersecurity provider Skybox Security grabs $150M in funding

Despite keeping a relatively low profile compared with some rivals, Skybox Security Inc. is a force to be reckoned with in the cybersecurity market. The San Jose, Calif.-based company today cemented its position by announcing the completion of a $150 million funding round.

The investment came from private equity firms CVC Capital Partners and Pantheon. Skybox founder Gidi Cohen, who had started the company in Israel before moving the headquarters to the U.S., told Israeli business publication Globes that a “significant part” of the capital went toward buying out existing investors. Skybox had previously raised funding from Benchmark Capital, Mitsubishi Fund and several other institutional backers.

The remainder of the new capital will help the company scale up its operations. Skybox competes in the cybersecurity market with a suite of six products aimed at helping organizations tackle the vulnerabilities lurking throughout their infrastructure.

From a functional standpoint, the offerings can be split into two main groups. The first three products are designed to pinpoint the security weaknesses that may be affecting a company’s systems. According to Skybox, its software can detect issues such as configuration problems in both on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments. 

The other three products are built mainly to help security professionals act on this vulnerability data. Of particular note is the Skybox Threat Manager, which can be used to prioritize potential threats based on their severity. This enables operations personnel to tackle the most urgent issues first.

Skybox claims that its products are used by six of the world’s 10 top banks and five of the largest consumer goods manufacturers. The company reports to have seen a 62 percent year-over-year jump in sales during the first half of 2017 on the back of strong adoption.

Cohen said in the Globes interview that from a financial standpoint, Skybox could be ready to go public within 12 months. However, he said that an initial public offering is currently “not part of our focus.”

Skybox is one of several providers working to help organizations plug security holes before they can be exploited by hackers. Another is SecurityScorecard Inc., which recently raised $27.5 million in funding of its own. The startup offers a platform for identifying issues not so much in a company’s internal infrastructure, but rather among business partners that could indirectly expose sensitive data should they be breached.

Image: Unsplash

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