Centrify finds its identity with $42m cash injection

Identity management vendor scores funding from investors including Fortinet and Samsung Ventures

Centrify has become the latest start-up vendor to secure an injection of juicy funding after bagging $42m (£25m) in venture capital lolly.

Operating in an identity and access management (IAM) market IDC estimates will be worth $6bn by 2017, Centrify's latest round of funding included participation from Samsung Ventures, Fortinet and Docomo Capital.

VC funding for ambitious IT start-ups has been free-flowing of late, with CloudEra, Nutanix and Pure Storage among those snagging nine-figure sums this year.

Centrify, which expanded into Europe in 2012, claimed it is poised to capitalise on the "explosive demand" for mobile and cloud-based security as the market transitions to identity-as-a-service (IDaaS).

The vendor has enlisted two new executives – Mark Weiner and Ally Zwahlen, as chief marketing officer and vice president of corporate communications, respectively – to bolster its global expansion plans.

"We believe Centrify is doing big things in the industry and we are confident that they will continue to provide the most comprehensive and cutting-edge cloud-based solutions for identity and access management," said Dr Injong Rhee, senior vice president of KNOX Business Group, IT and Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.

Neil Sundstrom, vice president of wireless solutions at Fortinet, added: "We are impressed with Centrify's vision for unified identity, the quality of its technology and the synergies with our industry-leading high-performance network security solutions."