Axis Security, an Israeli startup developing cloud-based security for organizational application access, secured $50 million in Series C funding. The investment was led by Spark Capital, a former investor in Slack, Twitter, and Tumblr. Also participating in the round were existing investors Ten Eleven Ventures, Cyberstarts, and Canaan Partners. The startup, which first left stealth mode a year ago, has raised $100 million to date.

Weren't planning on funding

The Axis Security cloud-based platform allows private access to company applications, enabling secure and no-network-configuration connection for users from anywhere and from any device in minutes.

Axis Security say that their solution solves application access, erasing the need for VPNs, which the company defines as “complex and blind to application content,” specifically when providing access to third-party suppliers.

While chatting with Geektime, CEO and co-founder Dor Knafo said that the company wasn’t planning to fundraise: “We didn’t plan on funding after such a short time. We weren’t proactively looking for investors, but just like the last round, we received many offers to invest in Axis’s future.”

What differentiates your platform from other competitors in the zero-trust market?

“Our competitive advantage is based on three key anchors: First, being speed - it takes customers only 1 hour to gain complete access to our cloud application. Second, simplicity - We developed a product that is very easy to manage and use. This way, it’s easy to avoid the complications and frustrations that often accompanies VPN and VDI solutions. The third anchor focuses on improving security - Our architecture is configured to minimize risk by protecting sensitive applications. This way, we erase the need for complex network configuration, which also increases risk in the organizational network, unlike other zero trust network access solutions.”

Axis is riding the wave of recent massive hacks, like SolarWinds and Microsoft. Kanfo says that “the company’s platform acts as a logic layer, which significantly reduces risk while strengthening security. Our technology helps reduce fear from various cyber threats, like the ones that happened to SolarWinds and Microsoft.”

Axis Security was founded in 2018 by Knafo and CTO Gil Azrielant. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, but holds an R&D center in Tel Aviv, and employs 65 people between the two - a number that Axis plans to double by the end of the year. Axis plans on using the funds to accelerate product development, as well as, upgrading its go-to-market strategy.