Cybersecurity firm Vectra Networks Inc. said today it has just raised $36 million in a late-stage round of funding.

The company plans to use funds from the Series D round to bolster its marketing efforts and improve its artificial intelligence-powered security platform in an era when enterprises are becoming increasingly concerned about the risk of cyberattacks.

The new round was led by Atlantic Bridge Capital, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and Nissho Electronics Corp., along with participation from previous investors Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, IA Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, DAG Ventures and Wipro Ventures. Vectra, founded in 2010, has now secured $122.5 million in total funding to date.

Vectra has made a name for itself in the crowded world of cybersecurity startups thanks to its AI-based “threat hunting platform” Cognito, which is designed to automate the hunt for attacks as they’re taking place. The company was recently ranked as a “Visionary” by research firm Gartner Inc. in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems. Cognito leverages AI technology in its “always-learning” behavioral models that protect enterprises by constantly scanning their networks for any signs of an attack taking place.

“The increasing volume, creativity and effectiveness of cyberattacks means that enterprises must adopt AI to automate cybersecurity operations,” said Kevin Dillon, managing partner at Atlantic Bridge Capital.

The platform works differently from traditional firewalls that try to keep attackers out. Instead, it tries to identify cyberattacks the moment they begin, so that users can quickly mitigate them and prevent damage. Cognito is designed to provide visibility into cloud and data center operations, as well as “internet of things” devices, officials said.

“The Cognito platform automates cyberattacker detection and response that was previously done manually by security analysts,” said Mike Banic, vice president of marketing at Vectra. “Unlike prevention security products, the Cognito platform is deployed ‘in line’ and analyzes rich metadata from network traffic, relevant logs and cloud events to detect attacker behaviors within all cloud and data center workloads and user and IoT devices.”

With the new funding, Banic said, Vectra plans to build new in-depth forensics and predictive analytics capabilities into its product, while expanding cloud use cases. As a result, he said, Vectra should be able to become a profitable company at last. If that happens, an initial public offering is not out of the question, he added.

“Given the optimal cash flow and valuation, we will make the right choice at that time based on prevailing market conditions,” Banic said.

Alongside the funding, Vectra said, it will open a new research and development center in Dublin, Ireland, where it hopes to create up to 100 new jobs in the next five years.

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