Cybersecurity technology providers are most prominent among the companies who reported raising new financing in September, along with a leading cloud storage provider and developers of data transformation, IoT and Kubernetes application observability technologies.
The availability of venture capital and other funding for IT startups and IT companies seeking financial resources to maintain growth continues to be tighter than it has been in recent years. Funding rounds also generally remain smaller than prior to this year with rounds of $100 million or more now a rarity.
But some IT companies continue to attract robust amounts of financing. In September Wasabi Technologies, a provider of cloud data storage services that’s challenging Amazon Web Services and other cloud giants, raised $250 million in financing – half in equity funding and half through a debt facility.
Companies developing next-generation cybersecurity technologies continue to attract funding. Four such companies, including established security company Malwarebytes and younger companies Cymulate, Fortanix and Dig Security, all reported successful funding rounds last month.
The September funding roundup also includes a startup provider of data transformation technology, an industrial IoT platform developer, and two startups developing Kubernetes application observability technologies.
Here’s a look at 10 companies that raised funding in September 2022.
Wasabi Technologies
Headquarters: Boston
CEO: David Friend
Funding: The $250 million in new financing included $125 million in Series D funding and a $125 million increase in the company’s debt facility.
Investors: The Series D round was led by L2 Point Management with participation from Cedar Pine, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, and returning investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company and Forestay Capital. The debt facility is with MGG Investment Group.
What company does: Wasabi is a leading provider of cloud data storage.
CEO Quote: “The emphasis right now is on top line growth. And as long as we’re expanding into all these new markets and building all these data centers and everything else, that’s a cash drain. But the minute you slow the growth down, you can turn profitable. So we’re at that point now where, if we didn’t have access to more investment capital, we would just slow down the growth and we can survive indefinitely.”
Malwarebytes
Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.
CEO: Marcin Kleczynski
Funding: A $100 million strategic minority investment expected to close by the end of 2022.
Investors: Vector Capital
What company does: Malwarebytes provides cybersecurity protection for consumers and organizations.
CEO Quote: “Vector Capital’s investment is a testament to the transformational work our team has done to evolve our best-in-class endpoint protection to comprehensive offerings for both individuals and organizations, while driving profitable growth. Importantly, Vector Capital shares our mission to protect those most vulnerable to cyberattacks through cutting-edge technologies and the power of community. We believe Vector Capital’s collaborative approach and proven ability to help build global software businesses make them ideal partners in our ongoing efforts to build a safer digital world.”
Fortanix
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.
CEO: Ambuj Kumar
Funding: A $90 million Series C funding round that brings the company’s total funding to $122 million.
Investors: The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from GiantLeap Capital and previous investors Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, Neotribe Ventures and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel venture investment arm.
What company does: Fortanix develops technology to secure data wherever it resides.
CEO Quote: “Cybersecurity is one of the most important needs of our current era. This fundraise is a strong validation of the massive market opportunity ahead as we execute our bold mission.”
Fortanix
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.
CEO: Ambuj Kumar
Funding: A $90 million Series C funding round that brings the company’s total funding to $122 million.
Investors: The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from GiantLeap Capital and previous investors Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, Neotribe Ventures and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel venture investment arm.
What company does: Fortanix develops technology to secure data wherever it resides.
CEO Quote: “Cybersecurity is one of the most important needs of our current era. This fundraise is a strong validation of the massive market opportunity ahead as we execute our bold mission.”
Isovalent
Headquarters: Cupertino, Calif.
CEO: Dan Wendlandt
Funding: The $40 million Series B funding round brought Isovalent’s total financing to $69 million.
Investors: The round was led by Thomvest Ventures with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund) and Grafana Labs who joined Google and Cisco Systems as existing strategic investors. Additional investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Mango Capital and Mirae Asset Capital.
What company does: Isovalent develops Isovalent Cilium Enterprise, an open-source, eBPF-based, cloud-native networking, security and observability system for Kubernetes applications.
CEO Quote: “The fact that Microsoft is investing in Isovalent means that all three top cloud providers have Kubernetes managed services. Google and Amazon already default to Cilium. While we’re not announcing Microsoft integration, you can see that Microsoft will work with us on Cilium to make sure it connects in an efficient and easy to use way.”