Israeli cloud and network security startup Perimeter 81 announced a $40 million Series B funding round. The investment was led by the NY-based Insight Partners, which invests in growth-stage technologies and software, while existing VCs and Toba Capital also took part in the round. Amazingly, this is the cyber startup’s third funding round since last November, when the company landed a $10 million investment followed by $4 million in the following March.
Less than a year since the big exit
Perimeter 81 develops technologies that replace the legacy security measures like firewalls and VPNs with zero-trust Security-as-a-Service for both network and cloud environments, which enables security teams to dictate specific cloud security policies and better manage authorizations.
Customers of the cyber company can easily access their own network through a dedicated app (available on most platforms). This is in contrast to VPN services and their costly and exacerbating connecting process that demand manual settings configuration. The automated system quickly spreads out through the network enabling mass user management, while also continuously monitoring all their activity.
Last February the company unveiled its SASE platform (Security Access Security Edge), which was embedded with a product developed by SonicWall, a company that received a November investment from Perimeter 81. The company’s extended platform operates on all cloud platforms, and enables network personalization, advanced cyber-security capabilities, and secure access to an organization’s network and internal resources, all without using VPN. Based on company data, 1,000 organizational customers from around the world, among them Fortune 500 dwellers, utilize Perimeter 81’s services, with the company producing a 400% increase in customers and annual revenue on their way up to the top of the very crowded Israeli cyber arena.
Perimeter 81 is the founding partners’ second project together, as Amit Bareket and Sagi Gidali previously co-founded a company called SaferVPN, which was acquired about a year ago by American conglomerate J2. SafeVPN developed a secure VPN that allowed users to overcome local censor policies in over 65 countries and overcome the geographical limits of different network providers. The official exit numbers were never released but estimations put the deal in the multi-million dollar range.
CPO and co-founder Sagi Gidali explained in a conversation with Geektime about the impact that COVID-19 had on the company, saying: “COVID definitely helped accelerate the demand for our solution, even though it was already gaining momentum prior to the pandemic, as a solution to the deep and long-lasting changes that we identified in the modern work environment.” Gidali continued to add that during this work-from-home period, a spread-out workforce demands low latency secure access to an organization’s network at any time and from anywhere: “Obviously the current landscape, demands a new solution as the old office-based security measures like VPNs and firewalls are no longer relevant. And if we’re talking COVID, then there’s absolutely no reason to invest so much security effort in protecting an at best half-empty office, while most of the employees are working remote off the cloud.”
Perimeter 81 was founded in 2018, raised $65 million up-to-date, and had 85 employees working out of Tel Aviv and NYC based offices. The company notes that the funds will go towards expanding the R&D team, as well as growing marketing efforts and opening offices in L.A. Amit Bareket added regarding the funding round that “the investment will allow us to run faster and aim for the gold.”
