Emerging Tech Hub: Menlo Security to pump recent funding into channel

Isolation security vendor recently raised $40m in Series C funding

Isolation vendor Menlo Security will use its recent $40m Series C funding to bolster the sales and marketing capabilties it offers the channel, according to VP for EMEA Paul Davis.

Menlo announced the funding earlier this week, taking its total amount raised to $85m.

Davis said the funding will be used in part to boost numbers in the field offering support to the channel.

"This gives us the opportunity to build out the sales and marketing capability, and to expand globally," he said.

"We're seeing the market turn towards this approach. If you go back 11 months we could see the market starting to look at isolation, now people are actually budgeting for it in projects.

"With some of the directives like GDPR coming up they're looking for alternative ways to reduce the threat."

Menlo's isolation platform works by opening websites and emails in secure cloud-based containers and rendering a copy of the content on the end-point device - therefore keeping potentially harmful content away from the device itself.

Davis said that the Series C round adds credibility to Menlo's business, and helps to separate it from the ever-growing number of security vendors taking on venture capital funding.

Participants in the round include American Express Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase.

"To do a Series C is a big deal," he said. "I think it's fair to say that a lot of companies can pick up a Series A round, there are literally thousands of companies out there that have gone through that, but to pick up a Series C is a huge milestone for us.

"It's a substantial amount of money and for us it's the endorsement [of the backers]. That's resonating with partners."

This year has seen Menlo increase the size of both its global and UK teams. Globally the vendor now has around 125 employees, with 25 of these based in the UK.

Davis said Menlo is looking to have closer to 200 employees by the end of 2018, with a specific focus on growing the technical team to support partners.

David Lannin, director of technology at security VAR Sapphire, said that he has been keeping an eye on Menlo over the last six months, having previously thought the vendor needed to introduce more features to make signing them viable.

"They brought the technology to me to evaluate and at the time I thought it needed a bit of work," he said.

"I had an update last Friday and they've put an awful lot of new features into it. It's not completely where it needs to be, I think there's still some work there, but they have a very active roadmap and it looks very promising.

"Over the last six months as well I've noticed that vendors like Symantec, and more traditional providers, are starting to offer web isolation, so certainly there is relevance in the market place - so much so that I'm expecting that Sapphire will end up signing Menlo very shortly."