Skyhigh Networks bags $40m for go-to-market expansion

Cloud security vendor claims 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 now use its technology as total capital raised shatters $100m mark

Cloud security vendor Skyhigh Networks has bagged another $40m (£31m) in funding, which it said it will use partly for go-to-market investments.

Thomvest Ventures, which led the round, said the cloud access security broker (CASB) market in which Skyhigh is supposedly a pioneer represents a "massive market opportunity".

Founded in 2012, Skyhigh's solution is designed to act as a central control point to protect confidential data stored in cloud services. It claims it already counts 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 as customers.

The latest Series D injection takes Skyhigh's total capital raised to $105.5m and will carry the California-based outfit to profitability, according to co-founder and CEO Rajiv Gupta.

"When we founded Skyhigh in 2012, CASB did not exist and cloud was regarded as 'too risky' for serious companies," Gupta said in a blog post accompanying the announcement.

"Three years later, analysts are calling CASB the fastest-growing security technology ever and 2016's number-one information security technology as companies are adopting cloud services at an accelerated pace."

According to Gartner figures touted in the release, 85 per cent of large enterprises will use a CASB product for their cloud services by 2020, up from five per cent last year.

Thomvest's Umesh Padval, who will join Skyhigh's board of directors, claimed security has become a major pain point for CISOs looking to migrate to cloud.

"The market for cloud security is directly tied to the demand for SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, collectively projected to grow to $141bn in 2019," he said.

"We recognise in Skyhigh the rare combination of a massive market opportunity, technical product leadership, enviable list of customers, visionary management, and a world-class team. Skyhigh helped pioneer the CASB market, and we look forward to working with their team as they continue to innovate and lead this space."

Skyhigh said it plans to use the funding to "accelerate its go-to-market investments and extend its leadership in the rapidly growing cloud security market with its CASB solution".