SentinelOne latest endpoint upstart to get VC boost
$70m investment to be ploughed into hitting 400 per cent sales growth in 2017
Endpoint security fledgling SentinelOne has scored $70m (€65.22m) in its Series C funding round, which the firm pledges to invest in sales and marketing resources to grow revenues by 400 per cent this year.
The latest round - which brings SentinelOne's total investment piggybank to more than $110m - was led by new investor Redpoint Ventures, with the remainder coming from another new party Sound Ventures and existing investors Third Point Ventures, Data Collective, Granite Hill Capital Partners, Westly Group and SineWave Ventures.
"Confidence remains dismally low when it comes to traditional antivirus' ability to stop anything but the most mundane threats. Even vendors that are now touting machine learning-based file-scanning, and artificial intelligence capabilities are in fact pursuing a very narrow approach, and only an incremental improvement - if any - to a much broader problem," said Tomer Weingarten, CEO of SentinelOne.
"The time is now to migrate away from these ineffective technologies that remain focused on only a subset of threats and replace with a next-generation endpoint protection platform that's been tested and proven to stop even the most advanced cyber threats."
He added: "With this new investment, we will expand our efforts to bring these advanced technologies to enterprises, services providers and government organizations across the globe who are eager for change."
SentinelOne said that the funding is also earmarked for continuing investment in R&D initiatives towards its endpoint protection platform. The security firm has also pledged to continue international expansion by investing in growing its global sales infrastructure and hiring new executives into the firm.
Along with announcing its latest round of investment, SentinelOne revealed that ex-Aerohive Networks general manager Gareth Green will join SentinelOne as vice president of international sales in February.
SentinelOne is not the only security player to have raked in a hefty sum from investors of late. Last year, fellow endpoint security vendor Cylance bagged $100m in June, while security intelligence firm LogRhythm also landed a tidy $50m in August.