LightCyber, a security startup focused on the behavioral attack detection market, has landed $20 million in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by Access Industries and investor Shlomo Kramer. Battery Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners and Amplify Partners also participated, the company said Wednesday. It adds to the $10 million in funds the Ramat Gan, Israel-based company revealed in September.
The new influx of capital will allow LightCyber to continue building on the momentum it has seen in the security market, Chief Marketing Officer Jason Matlof said.
[Related: Here's What 6 Top VCs Are Saying About The Channel]
"It's a great validation of us as a company, the market we're playing in, our products and the success we've had," Matlof said.
Matlof said 2015 was all about zeroing in on the market for the company's product -- which delivers network and endpoint visibility and context into attacks that have already penetrated an environment -- and proving there is a repeatable customer base for the solution.
The coming year will be a year of "very explosive growth," Matlof said, using the latest round of funding as fuel for the fire toward reaching its goal of 400 percent year-over-year sales growth.
To achieve that, Matlof said, LightCyber will primarily use the funding to invest in sales and marketing. As a 100 percent channel company, he said, that means the startup will be funneling significant resources to partners, including investments in channel lead generation, and head count around the channel, events and recruitment.
Stephen Harrison, CEO at the EverSec Group, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has been involved with LightCyber since 2014. He said he was pleased to see how the vendor leveraged the funding from its previous round and is looking forward to how it will leverage this new round as customers have grown more aware of the company's solutions.
"I was pleased with where they went with [the initial round] with implementing a strong field sales force and doing quite a good job with marketing," Harrison said. "I'm obviously just as excited with what they're able to do with this significantly larger B round. … It's just the opportune time."
Harrison said he would like to see LightCyber continue to increase its sales force and marketing efforts, while keeping true to its "core detection capabilities."
Harrison said it is a validation for him of the company's technology and go-to-market strategy that it was able to grab new backing in an increasingly competitive climate for venture capital funding.
"We went through this feeding frenzy, and now I think everyone is realizing that only so many of these companies will survive. It's certainly a big show of confidence that LightCyber was able to get this level of funding," Harrison said.
Matlof agreed, adding that for partners, the funding serves as an additional sign that the vendor is a stable partner bet.
"LightCyber will be around because they have the financial stability and viability to survive, while others who don’t will flop," Matlof said. "The market is collapsing and people are getting extended. It's a terrible market for us to have done this. To raise this much capital with a new investor and an up round is exceptional. It's exciting for us."
Matlof said partners can expect to see "heavy growth in partner recruitment" in the months to come, with additional marketing funding coming in the second half of the year.
related stories
Video
trending stories
sponsored resources

Application Integration 360

CRN Showcase

APC by Schneider Electric
Digital Services for Edge Learning Center

Cyber Protection 360

Sophos
Sophos Cybersecurity Learning Center

Vonage
Vonage

Channel Chief Showcase

SentinelONE
EndPoint Security 360

Comm100
Collaboration & Communications 360

Smart 3rd Party
3rd Party Maintenance 360

Cradlepoint
5g for Business 360

Cato Networks
SASE & SD-WAN 360

Trend Micro
Trend Micro Learning Center

Veeam
Veeam

Fujifilm
Fujifilm

BlackBerry
BlackBerry Learning Center

Acer
Remote Workforce 360

Partner Program Guide Showcase

Hitachi Vantara
Hitachi Vantara

VMware

HubStor
Cloud Backup 360

Wasabi
Wasabi

Cysurance
Cyber Insurance 360

Vertiv
Edge Computing Learning Center

Webroot
Webroot Learning Center

NPD
Industry Trends 360

Comcast Business
Comcast Business Learning Center

iboss
Cloud SASE Platform 360

Terranova Security
Cybersecurity 360

CyberPower
CyberPower

N-able
MSP Automation Solutions 360

eSentire
Managed Detection and Response 360

EPOS
EPOS

Sherweb
Sherweb

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Cloud Learning Center

Dell Technologies
Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies Learning Center

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Storage Learning Center

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Server Learning Center

Carbonite
Cloud Storage 360
