Netskope Raises $340 Million in Latest Funding Round
Influx of money raises cloud security vendor’s valuation to almost $3 billion
Cloud security vendor Netskope has seen its valuation grow to almost $3 billion in the wake of an investment round that saw an infusion of $340 million.
The Lowdown: The latest funding brings the total that the Santa Clara, California-based company has raised to more than $740 million over seven rounds, according to Crunchbase. The previous round in 2018 brought in $168.7 million.
The Details: New investor Sequoia Capital Global Equities led the Series G round, which also included new investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and PSP Investments and previous investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Base Partners, ICONIQ Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Geodesic Capital, and Social Capital.
Netskope launched in 2012 with its focus firmly on the cloud and the security challenges it presents. The Netskope Security Cloud is designed to provide organizations with deep visibility and real-time threat protection and information when accessing cloud services, websites, or apps from anywhere. The company also embraces the trend toward greater mobility, giving customers this data and security regardless of what device is being used.
The cloud-based platform leverages secure web gateway features, machine learning, zero-trust secure access, and advanced threat protection, and delivers it on the company’s NewEdge network.
Background: The company is growing quickly. In 2019, it saw an 80% year-over-year growth in its number of customers – which includes a quarter of Fortune 100 companies – and almost 50% growth in its workforce, particularly among engineers and sales reps. Netskope also opened new offices last year in such locations as Paris; São Paulo, Brazil; Tokyo; Seattle; New York; and San Francisco. It also expanded its business into countries ranging from Australia and Singapore to Chile, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
The Buzz: “When we started Netskope in 2012, it was clear that the cloud was changing everything, but few saw how it would disrupt security,” Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri said. “Since inception, we have always focused on architecting a true cloud platform that, over time, will secure and govern all of an enterprise’s traffic as the perimeter evolves into a new high-performance worldwide cloud edge. This latest investment from the top enterprise and security investors in the world is proof not only of our enormous success in establishing Netskope as the new gold standard for cloud-delivered security, but also that the astounding level of global demand we’re seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Netskope has become the unrivaled leader driving innovation across cloud, data, and network security, which makes up the largest part of today’s security market,” said Patrick Fu, managing partner at Sequoia Capital Global Equities. “Netskope is raising the bar for game changers who are successfully pushing beyond the limitations of existing technology to reshape a market. Sanjay and the entire Netskope team are on an incredible trajectory, and we are thrilled to partner with this talented team for the long term.”
