Application security testing startup Invicti Security Ltd. will have bags of money to play with after raising a $625 million funding round led by Summit Partners.

The round Existing investor Turn/River Capital will also participate in the round, which is expected to close sometime in the fourth quarter, Invicti said.

Invicti sells tools that improve web application security for enterprises. The company was in 2017 by Turn/River Capital, which brought together two leading companies in the web application security space  — Netsparker Ltd. and Acunetix Ltd. — and merged them into a single entity.

Netsparker is probably the better-known of the two. Founded in 2009, it sells web application security scanning software for enterprises that’s used to identify security flaws in websites, web applications and web services. The software relies on “proof-based scanning technology” aimed at automatically verifying security flaws without reporting false positives.

The software is offered in two versions: a Windows application with advanced vulnerability scanning technology, built-in penetration testing and reporting tools, and a cloud version. The latter offers scalable multiuser online security scanning with built-in enterprise workflow tools to manage up to thousands of websites.

Meanwhile, Acunetix is a tool aimed at small and medium-sized firms that’s used to scan for vulnerabilities in web applications. Acunetix relies on a crawler that scans a company’s entire web attack surface. The crawler fully supports HTML5, JavaScript and AJAX-heavy websites. Further, it provides integrated vulnerability management features, so not only will it identify vulnerabilities, but it can also help enterprises to manage, prioritize and control any threats it surfaces.

“Netsparker is designed for enterprise web application security testing, with a large number of integrations and high scalability, while Acunetix is designed for small and medium-sized companies and is easy to implement quickly and use,” Invicti told SiliconANGLE in a statement. “Both products enable security and development teams to scan and protect their entire web application attack surface, whether an app is already in production or is in development.”

Acunetix was founded even earlier than Netsparker, as far back as 2005. Yet, despite their age, both tools continue to experience growing adoption. Invicti said it has added more than 700 new customers in the last 12 months and is on track to grow its annual recurring revenue by over 60% this year, which suggests there’s no shortage of demand for its solutions.

Summit Partners Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer Scott Collins suggested a likely reason for Invicti’s growth. He noted that as software development cycles have shortened dramatically in the last decade, new vulnerabilities are created with much greater frequency than before.

“Invicti is working to meet this challenge head on with elegant and seamless solutions designed to bring scale, automation, speed and accuracy to help organizations secure their web attack surface,” he said. “The company has earned a market-leading reputation.”

At present, Invicti counts more than 3,100 customers worldwide.

“We’re confident that Summit’s extensive security experience will help accelerate our product innovation, expand our reach and address the urgent problem of web application security faced by organizations around the world,” said Invicti founder and Chief Executive Ferruh Mavituna.

Invicti said the new funds would be used to support its continued growth and product development initiatives.

Image: Invicti