Canadian managed detection and response startup eSentire Inc. today said it has raised $325 million in new funding to invest in research and development and hire more people.

The secondary market and private equity raise came through binding agreements with Georgian and Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec. The funding was raised on a valuation of greater than $1 billion, giving eSentire unicorn status for the first time. Including the new funding, eSentire has raised $411.2 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

Founded in 2001, eSentire provides information security solutions and protects enterprises from advanced cyberthreats. The company pitches itself as the “authority” in managed detection and response, with a mission to hunt, investigate and stop cyberthreats before they become business-disrupting events.

The company’s product combines machine learning XDR technology, 24/7 threat hunting and security operations leadership to mitigate business risk and enable security at scale. Ease of deployment is also a strong point, with a mean time to contain active cybersecurity threats of less than 15 minutes.

According to eSentire, its Atlas XDR Cloud Platform delivers an unmatched artificial intelligence advantage whereby customer security postures are hardened as each threat detection model and expert response action are proactively pushed at large scale across the eSentire customer base.

What eSentire calls the “security network effect” enables a level of protection that it says cannot be underestimated in today’s evolving cybercrime ecosystem. This company said its SNE has been an integral driver of enterprise adoption of both eSentire MDR and the overall Atlas XDR software-as-a-service offering.

ESentire has seen strong growth, with its MDR solution protecting critical data and applications of more than 1,200 organizations in 75-plus countries from known and unknown cyber threats. The company has also surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

“ESentire has a well-documented history of making original threat discoveries and protecting its customers from ransomware battles and zero-day attacks,” Georgian founder Simon Chong said in a statement.

Image: eSentire