Tanium Lands $100M In New Funding, Says "No Impact" On Possible IPO Plans
Two years after its last round of funding, Tanium has landed $100 million in new financing as the security startup looks to continue to invest in its business and march towards a potential IPO.
The funding, which was raised through the sale of common stock, was led by TPG Capital. It also included other existing investors and one new investor, the company said. The company has seen investments to date from Andreessen Horowitz, TPG Capital, T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton Investments, and Citi Ventures.
Tanium raised the funding at a company valuation of $3.75 billion, higher than the company's $3.65 billion valuation when it raised $120 million in funding in September 2015. Tanium has raised $362 million to date.
[Related: Tanium Steals Former Veritas Americas Channel Chief To Lead Channels]
The funding comes on the heels of a period of tough press for Tanium, with reports last month of an extremely challenged company culture and the sudden departure of the company's CFO Eric Brown in March. Until then, the company was seen as a hot upstart in the security market, with a peer-to-peer technology that lets organizations continuously scan all endpoints in a network to detect vulnerabilities and unmanaged devices.
CFO and COO Fazal Merchant, who announced he was joining Tanium from DreamWorks in April, said the new round of funding will be put towards purchasing shares from co-founder David Hindawi, who will put the money towards his charitable endeavors, as well as providing liquidity for other institutional and employee equity holders.
Merchant said Tanium will put the remaining funding towards general corporate purposes, including general working capital and capital for ongoing operations. He said there will likely be no funding earmarked for the company's reseller partners.
As for Tanium's IPO plans – as one of the tech companies most expected to go public in the coming months – Merchant said the new round of funding won't have an impact. As the company's new CFO, Merchant said he doesn't want to put out any deadlines or times for an IPO, looking instead to go public if and when it makes sense for the company.
"The beauty of our business, I think… is the way it's been built, the way it's growing, and the way it continues to scale gives us a lot of options to scaling it as a private company and scaling it as a public company and everything in between," Merchant said.
Merchant said Tanium needs to "get our ducks in a row" from a strategic, financial, and operational perspective so it can proceed with an IPO, or forgo one, when it makes sense.
"For me, the focus has to be on what is best for our customers, the employees, and the business over the long term," Merchant said. "Through that lens, if an IPO makes sense…then it's up to me and the rest of the team to ensure that we're prepared strategically, financially and operationally when the iron is hot."
That includes building out the company's leadership team, Merchant said. Tanium has seen many top-level executive departures in recent months, but the company has started to fill some of those posts, including the appointment of former Veritas channel chief Rick Kramer to lead channel sales and former Facebook executive Chris Bream as CTO.
Tanium said its roadmap for 2017 also includes investment in IT operations, growth in new and existing vertical markets, and international growth in EMEA and APAC.
"We're growing as a company and…making sure the right leadership team is in place as we keep growing," Merchant said. He said to expect further announcements in the near-term around executive team appointments.