Cloud-native security provider Aqua Security Software Ltd. has just become the latest startup to achieve “unicorn” status after landing a big funding round that takes its value north of the $1 billion mark.

The company said today it has raised $135 million in a Series E round of funding, bringing its total amount raised to $265 million. ION Crossover Partners led the round, together with participation from existing investors that include M12 Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, TLV Partners, Greenspring Associates and Acrew Capital.

Aqua Security sells a comprehensive security platform that helps to protect cloud-native, container-based and serverless applications from malware and other malicious attacks. The company’s main offering is the Aqua Platform, which is a cloud-native security platform that developers can use to automate and improve the security and compliance posture of their apps, monitor usage and control user access.

The advantage of the Aqua Platform is that it provides full visibility into container activity, allowing developers to detect and prevent attacks and other suspicious activity in real time. The platform notably integrates with application lifecycle and orchestration tools, enabling it to automate security processes while enforcing regulatory compliance too.

Aqua Security’s offerings also include Aqua Wave, a new software-as-a-service product launched last year that secures apps as they’re being built together with the infrastructure they’re deployed on. Aqua Wave’s key component is its cloud security posture management tool, which creates a kind of “self-healing” cloud infrastructure that can perceive when it’s not operating correctly and make adjustments to restore itself to health.

The company said it has seen big demand for its security offerings over the past year, helping it to double its number of paying customers. It said in a release today that it now has “half a dozen customers” with an annual recurring revenue of more than $1 million.

The company’s open-source tools have also seen their adoption grow too. For example, Trivy, its open-source vulnerability scanner, has been selected as the default scanner by GitLab, the Harbor Registry and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s Artifact Hub.

Late-stage Series E funding rounds are very often a precursor to startups going public via an initial public offering, but Aqua Security co-founder and Chief Executive Dror Davidoff told SiliconANGLE that the company doesn’t have any concrete plans at this time.

“These days, successful and fast-growing companies have a lot of options from a financial perspective,” Davidoff said. “Certainly one of those is a potential IPO somewhere down the line.”

In the meantime, Davidoff said Aqua Security remains focused on helping its customers move their applications to the cloud. He explained that cloud-native technologies are constantly evolving as they’re introduced to the stack, and Aqua Security needs to stay one step ahead in terms of providing support for those new elements. The new funding will enable Aqua Security to do just that, he said.

“As attacks targeting cloud-native applications are now a fast-growing threat, we are here to empower our customers to protect their investment and secure their future.” Davidoff said.

Image: Aqua Security