At the beginning of the year, Israeli startup BigID surprised us with $50 million in funding, based on a $350 million valuation according to Pitchbook. This came just a mere 4 months after securing a separate $50 million Series C round with a valuation of just under $100 million. And if you think that was impressive, then check this out, BigID closes out an incredible 2020 with a personal best $70 million Series D. The investment was led by Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Global and Glynn Capital, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and Boldstart Ventures. As expected, the investment comprised both primary and secondary shares, with the highlight being that the company has officially entered the $1 billion Unicorn territory.

Reducing risk in data collection

BigID developed a platform for managing and enforcing privacy policies of network data in compliance with the strictest regulatory demands, such as the new European and Californian laws that recently came into effect. The company’s technology combines Machine-Learning and identity intelligence in order to locate, track, and reduce risks of data leaks in enterprises.

BigID’s platform automates mapping and cataloging of all the customer data that a certain enterprise holds while providing crucial tools for security teams to rapidly identify and monitor private information.

“BigID doesn’t need the cash, most of the capital has yet to be used”

In a conversation with Geektime, co-founder and CPO Nimrod Vax explains that the company has experienced considerable growth since the last funding round, doubling its customer base and its workforce. “We launched BigID’s application platform and with it, a number of key privacy and data security management apps, including a new product for the cloud and a new product for identifying and cataloging data on AWS, which we are releasing now at re:invent,” adds Vax.

So why fundraise again?

Vax: “All the rounds were initiated by our investors and reflect their faith in the data management market, as well as in BigID’s emergence as a market leader versus established and upcoming competitors. BigID doesn’t need the cash and most of the capital has yet to be used. However, the offers we received were just too attractive to turn down, they allow us to accelerate growth and establish our leadership in both product and sales.”

Where do you go from here? IPO? M&As?

Vax: “We continue to focus on customer growth in addition to our development and marketing processes. In the coming year, we are targeting the expansion of our service offering and customer variety. Solutions at scale for both small and large, for developers, and for small business units in enterprises.”

Unlike competitors, Vax details that BigID is capable of connecting to all existing enterprise data, and is able to catalog, classify, and connect the data in order to extract as much insight from it as possible. This is in addition to application developing capabilities, which use the generated insight for solving privacy, security, and data management issues. “The platform is available for both customers and partners to build dedicated applications for better integration. We have a virtual community that shares examples and tools for developing applications and proper integrations,” notes Vax.

BigID was founded in 2016 by Nimrod Vax and CEO Dimitri Sirota. Currently, the company employs 250 people in Israel, New-York, London, Brazil, France, India, Singapore, Australia, and other locations. The company intends to use the raised capital towards accelerating its investment in data intelligence for privacy, protection, and perspective, further expand sales and marketing, and deliver new applications for actioning data in data privacy, security, and governance.