Fast-growing cybersecurity startup Perimeter 81 Ltd. today announced that it has closed a $100 million funding round led by B Capital at a $1 billion valuation.

With the Series C funding, Perimeter 81 is now reportedly worth five times more than after its previous funding round in August 2020. During the same time frame, the startup’s customer base has grown from more than 1,000 organizations to about 2,400. It says strong demand over the past 12 months helped it more than double its annual recurring revenue, which is on track to reach “tens of millions of dollars” this year.  

The Tel Aviv-based company provides a so-called secure service edge platform that enables a company’s workers to securely access business applications. The platform can encrypt the connection between a worker’s device and a business application to protect network traffic. If a user logs into a company system from a potentially vulnerable Wi-Fi hotspot, Perimeter 81 automatically takes steps to improve security.

Companies using the startup’s platform can create rules to regulate how internal applications are accessed. An organization could, for example, specify that employees may only access an important workload from a device with antivirus software installed. Administrators can also require that employee devices meet a variety of other technical requirements. 

Besides providing features for avoiding data breaches, Perimeter 81’s platform also promises to help companies reduce the impact on the corporate network if a breach does occur. The platform makes it possible to split a corporate network into multiple segments that are isolated from one another. If hackers gain access to one segment, they can’t compromise the others, which limits the impact of data breaches.

The extensive list of cybersecurity tasks that Perimeter 81’s platform can carry out is one of its main selling points. According to the startup, matching the features provided by its platform usually requires companies to deploy several different cybersecurity products. 

Perimeter 81 argues that replacing multiple products with a single offering significantly eases administrators’ work. The startup says that companies can start deploying its platform within 20 minutes, while competing offerings take a week or more. It’s also promising a lower total cost of ownership than rival products.

The company positions its platform as a more efficient alternative to the on-premises cybersecurity appliances that companies have historically used to protect their networks. According to the startup, the platform can similarly replace virtual private network or VPN tools. Companies use VPN software to encrypt connections between employee devices and applications.

“The rise of remote work, cloud adoption, fiber and 5G has created a fundamental shift in the network security landscape, leading companies to replace their on-premises network and security appliances with a secure corporate network over the internet,” said Perimeter 81 co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Amit Bareket. 

Perimeter 81 currently has about 250 workers. The startup will use the proceeds from its latest funding round to grow its sales, marketing and product development teams. Lead investor B Capital was joined in the funding round by Insight Partners, Toba Capital, ION Crossover Ventures, Entrée Capital and Spring Ventures.

Image: Perimeter 81