10 Hot Startups That Raised VC Funding In October

Follow The Money

October saw a flurry of venture capital rounds in the cybersecurity space, led by a big round for identity verification specialist Duo Security. Security startups working in areas including deception technology, application security and awareness training also hauled in funding during the month. Meanwhile, storage technology firm Infinidat raised the largest round on our October list, a $95 million Series C funding, while companies working in business intelligence, industrial Internet of Things and DevOps tools collected major funding rounds during the month as well.

What follows are our picks for 10 IT startups to watch that raised VC funding in October.

AtScale

Headquarters: San Mateo, Calif.

CEO: Dave Mariani

Funding: $25 million, Series C

Investors: Atlantic Bridge (led the round), Wells Fargo, Index Ventures, Storm Ventures, UMC, Comcast, XSeed Capital

What it does: Provider of business intelligence software that offers interactive, multidimensional data analysis using existing tools

Attivo Networks

Headquarters: Fremont, Calif.

CEO: Tushar Kothari

Funding: $21 million, Series C

Investors: Trident Capital Cybersecurity (led the round), Bain Capital Ventures, Omidyar Technology Ventures

What it does: Developer of deception technology for combating cyberattacks, including insider, Active Directory, and ransomware attacks

Averon

Headquarters: San Francisco

CEO: Wendell Brown

Funding: $8.3 million

Investors: Avalon Ventures

What it does: Developer of a new standard for secure mobile identity verification, which uses mobile network signaling and the SIM/eSIM chips inside smartphones

Contrast Security

Headquarters: Los Altos, Calif.

CEO: Alan Naumann

Funding: $30 million, Series C

Investors: Battery Ventures (led the round), General Catalyst, Acero Capital

What it does: Provider of cybersecurity technology that enables software applications to "self-protect" against attacks, using sensors inside applications that uncover security vulnerabilities

Duo Security

Headquarters: Ann Arbor, Mich.

CEO: Dug Song

Funding: $70 million, Series D

Investors: Meritech Capital Partners and Lead Edge Capital (co-led the round), Geodesic Capital, Index Ventures, Workday, Redpoint Ventures, True Ventures

What it does: Developer of a "Trusted Access" product suite that provides identity verification and device health assessment before granting users with access to data and applications

FogHorn Systems

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

CEO: David King

Funding: $30 million, Series B

Investors: Intel Capital and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (co-led the round), Honeywell Ventures, March Capital Partners, GE, Dell Technologies Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Darling Ventures

What it does: Offers an industrial IoT software stack that blends sensor data from industrial machines with cloud-based management, analysis, and machine-learning capabilities

HashiCorp

Headquarters: San Francisco

CEO: Dave McJannet

Funding: $40 million, Series C

Investors: GGV Capital and Redpoint (co-led the round), Mayfield, True Ventures

What it does: Developer of cloud-agnostic tools for DevOps, which deliver consistent workflow for provisioning and securing infrastructure from multiple public cloud providers

Infinidat

Headquarters: Waltham, Mass.

CEO: Moshe Yanai

Funding: $95 million, Series C

Investors: Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing (led the round), TPG Growth

What it does: Offers software-focused storage technology for providing low latency, high availability, and hyper-scale capacity

KnowBe4

Headquarters: Clearwater, Fla.

CEO: Stu Sjouwerman

Funding: $30 million, Series B

Investors: Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (led the round), Elephant

What it does: Provider of a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, focused on raising awareness of ransomware, CEO fraud, and other social engineering tactics

OpsRamp

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

CEO: Varma Kunaparaju

Funding: $20 million

Investors: Sapphire Ventures

What it does: Offers an enterprise IT management platform built for hybrid environments