25 Emerging Vendors Start Off The Year With A Collective $1 Billion In Venture Funding
Show Me The Money
While much of the Northern Hemisphere tends to hibernate during the winter months, venture financing activity for IT startups has stayed surprisingly hot. Here's a look at 25 companies that started off 2016 by collectively pulling in just over $1 billion in funding.
Security technology and business analytics companies account for nearly a dozen of the companies on this list of startups and young companies. Also well-represented are companies with cloud and virtual data center technologies including hyper-converged systems, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, cloud and application integration, and virtual disaster recovery. Throw in some startups in DevOps, device management and data digitization and you've got a pretty good cross-section of what's hot in IT these days.
One billion dollars: You could afford a really nice wintertime Caribbean vacation with that ...
Anodot
Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif., and Ra'Anana, Israel
CEO: David Drai
New Funding: $3 million
Round: Series A
Backers: The Disrupt-ive Fund.
Startup Anodot exited stealth in November, unveiling its real-time anomaly detection technology -- software with patented machine learning algorithms that automates business analytics and pinpoints performance issues and business opportunities in real time.
The new financing brings the company's total funding to $4.5 million. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its product development and expand its sales activities, focusing on the ad tech, ecommerce, Internet of Things and manufacturing industries in the U.S. and EMEA.
AppDynamics
Headquarters: San Francisco
CEO: David Wadhwani
New Funding: $158 million
Round: Series F
Backers: General Atlantic, Altimeter Capital, Adage Capital, Industry Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Cross Creek Advisors, IVP, Greylock Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
With a market valuation reportedly close to $2 billion, AppDynamics, founded in 2008, is well into "unicorn" territory. The company develops the Application Intelligence Platform application performance management software for monitoring, managing, analyzing and optimizing software and the user experience.
In December, AppDynamics launched the winter release of its product with enhanced database monitoring capabilities, particularly for the popular MongoDB NoSQL database.
Avecto
Headquarters: Manchester, U.K.
Co-CEOs: Paul Kenyon and Mark Austin
New Funding: $49 million
Round: Venture
Backers: JMI Equity.
Founded in 2008, Avecto develops its Defendpoint endpoint security software, which protects computers and servers from malware and cyberattacks. The company now has a roster of more than 600 customers and has been adding more than 100 customers a year for the past five years.
Avecto said it has grown its revenue by more than 50 percent on a CAGR basis since 2012. The company plans to use the money from the equity investment to expand hiring across the company.
Captricity
Headquarters: Oakland, Calif.
CEO: Kuang Chen
New Funding: $35 million
Round: Series C
Backers: White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd., Social Capital and Accomplice.
Captricity develops a cloud-native, Data-as-a-Service platform that helps businesses in regulated industries digitize customer data in handwritten forms. The proprietary technology combines learning technology to convert handwritten forms into actionable data.
Channel Mechanics
Headquarters: San Francisco
CEO: Kenneth Fox
New Funding: $2.3 million
Round: Angel Funding
Backers: Konstantin Sidorov, founder of RRC Business Telecommunications; Karl Flannery, chairman of the Knowledge Transfer Ireland industry advisory board; and Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government business development agency.
Channel Mechanics provides the ChannelIT Software-as-a-Service platform, which businesses use to manage their channel activities as part of their go-to-market strategies. The company plans to use the new funds to expand in the U.S.
Digital Guardian
Headquarters: Waltham, Mass.
CEO: Ken Levine
New Funding: $66 million
Round: Venture Round
Backers: LLR Partners, Mass Mutual Ventures LLC, the Venture Capital Unit of Siemens Financial Services, GE Pension Trust, Fairhaven Capital Partners, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge, and Special Situation Funds.
Digital Guardian develops a next-generation data protection platform that's designed to prevent data theft across corporate networks, servers, endpoint devices, mobile devices and cloud applications.
This, the single largest funding round in Digital Guardian's history, will help the company accelerate revenue growth, continue product development and integration, and expand globally. The company expected 50 percent year-over-year growth in bookings in 2015 and 132 percent growth in the company's managed services business.
EiQ Networks
Headquarters: Boston
CEO: Vijay Basani
New Funding: $9.55 million
Round: Series C
Backers: Arrowroot Capital and EiQ founders Vijay Basani and Jay Reddy.
EiQ offers its SOCVue hybrid SaaS security services aimed at helping midsize organizations build enterprise-class security programs.
EiQ recorded 178 percent growth in 2015 and recruited nearly a dozen new partners. The company will use the new financing to accelerate customer acquisition through increased sales and marketing initiatives, as well as boost its channel marketing activities.
Elastifile
Headquarters: San Jose and Herzliya, Israel
CEO: Amir Aharoni
New Funding: $35 million
Round: Series B
Backers: Battery Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, plus six "data center and server industry leaders."
Elastifile, founded in 2014, develops an all-flash, hyper-converged enterprise storage systems that the company targets toward virtualized data centers and private cloud systems. The software-defined, scalable technology is designed to handle the exploding volumes of unstructured data.
Everlaw
Headquarters: Berkeley, Calif.
CEO: AJ Shankar
New Funding: $8.1 million
Round: Series A
Backers: Andreessen Horowitz.
Everlaw develops a software platform for the legal profession, providing e-discovery, document management and search capabilities for lawyers, attorneys general and other legal professionals. The company was founded in 2010.
Faction
Headquarters: Denver
CEO: Luke Norris
New Funding: $6 million
Round: Series A
Backers: Equity from Meritage Funds and Sweetwater Capital, plus debt financing from Ares Capital Corp.
Faction offers enterprise-class Infrastructure-as-a-Service for public, private and hybrid cloud services. In 2015 the company saw 46 percent revenue growth and expects similar results this year.
Fireglass
Headquarters: New York and Tel Aviv
CEO: Guy Guzner
New Funding: $20 million
Round: Series A
Backers: Norwest Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Singtel Innov8, Mickey Boodaei (co-founder of Imperva and Trusteer) and Rakesh Loonkar (co-founder of Trusteer).
Fireglass develops enterprise network security software that the company said eliminates Web attack surfaces of both users and applications through the use of threat isolation technology.
Fireglass plans to use the new financing to expand its research and development efforts and to build out its sales, marketing and support teams in North America and Europe.
ForeScout Technologies
Headquarters: Campbell, Calif.
CEO: Michael DeCesare
New Funding: $76 million
Round: Series G
Backers: Wellington Management Company LLP.
ForeScout develops technology that allows IT managers to see and control unsecured "dark" devices across enterprise networks. The company plans to use the additional capital to expand its global field operations, build a support organization and increase research and development efforts -- particularly in the area of Internet of Things devices.
ForeScout has been growing at a CAGR of more than 50 percent since 2012 and revenue surpassed $125 million in 2015. The latest funding round put the company's valuation at more than $1 billion.
Gridstore
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.
CEO: George Symons
New Funding: $19 million
Round: Series C
Backers: Atlantic Bridge Capital, Acero Capital, GGV Capital and Onset Ventures.
Gridstore develops hyper-converged, all-flash infrastructure appliances for Hyper-V cloud system environments. The company plans to use the new funding to expand partner recruitment programs, domestic and international sales teams, and engineering and product development initiatives.
Instart Logic
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
CEO: Manav Mital
New Funding: $45 million
Round: Series D
Backers: Geodesic Capital, Stanford-StartX Fund, Harris Barton Asset Management, Hermes Growth Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Four Rivers Group, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Tenaya Capital. The company also received a strategic investment from Telstra Ventures, the venture arm of Telstra of Australia.
Instart Logic markets an application delivery platform that combines machine-learning technology with a content delivery network that's designed for DevOps and mobile-first applications.
IronScales
Headquarters: RaAnana, Israel
CEO: Eyal Benishti
New Funding: $1.5 million
Round: Seed Funding
Backers: RDSeed, the investment arm of Rafael Development Corp.
IronScales develops an automated phishing-mitigation system that protects organizations from cybercrimes that involve attempts to deceive employees into revealing sensitive information, such as usernames and passwords. The company will use the seed funding for ongoing product development and expansion of its operations in Europe and the U.S.
Jitterbit
Headquarters: Alameda, Calif.
CEO: George Gallegos
New Funding: $20 million
Round: Series B
Backers: KKR & Co.
Jitterbit offers cloud integration software for connecting applications, data and systems. The company's Harmony technology helps organizations bridge the gap between legacy IT systems and newer API-, cloud- and device-based services.
Jitterbit grew its recurring revenue by more than 80 percent in the past fiscal year.
Looker
Headquarters: Santa Cruz, Calif.
CEO: Frank Bien
New Funding: $48 million
Round: Series C
Backers: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Redpoint Ventures, Meritech and Sapphire Ventures.
Looker develops a Software-as-a-Service business analytics platform that puts actionable intelligence in the hands of employees who need it most. Last year the company launched Powered By Looker, a service that allows businesses, ISVs and solution providers to embed the Looker analytics capabilities within any application, website or portal.
The company will invest the new capital in sales, marketing and engineering operations and further fuel its international expansion. Looker has raised a total of $96 million since its 2013 launch.
Malwarebytes
Headquarters: San Jose
CEO: Marcin Kleczynski
New Funding: $50 million
Round: B Series
Backers: Fidelity Management and Research Co.
Malwarebytes develops its popular namesake malware prevention and remedial software. In February the company launched the Malwarebytes Breach Remediation endpoint detection and remediation cybersecurity platform.
Malwarebytes, already well-known in consumer markets, will use the new funding to expand its presence in the market for security software for businesses. That includes spending more on research and development, growing the vendor's channel operations and possibly making acquisitions.
Neura
Headquarters: San Francisco
CEO: Gilad Meiri
New Funding: $11 million
Round: Series A
Backers: AXA Strategic Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Liberty Israel Venture Fund and Lenovo Group.
Neura markets what it calls an "ethical personalization service" for the Internet of Things. The development technology enriches applications with data about user-behavior patterns and activities, enabling higher levels of personalization for everything from health-care applications, to music services, to homes.
Omadi
Headquarters: Provo, Utah
CEO: Scott Petersen
New Funding: $5 million
Round: Series A
Backers: Pelion Venture Partners, Peak Ventures, Kickstart Seedfund, Tall Wave Capital, Service Provider Capital and additional investors.
Omadi develops CRM applications specifically for the auto towing industry.
Sendachi
Headquarters: Seattle and London
CEO: Steven Anderson
New Funding: $30 million
Round: Seed Round
Backers: Columbia Capital.
Sendachi launched in January when two startups in the DevOps arena, Seattle-based Clutch and London-based Contino, merged to form the next-generation solution and service provider company offering DevOps, continuous delivery and digital transformation technology and services.
Sisense
Headquarters: New York
CEO: Amir Orad
New Funding: $50 million
Round: Series D
Backers: Bessemer Venture Partners, Opus Capital, Genesis Partners, Battery Ventures and DFJ Growth.
Sisense offers business intelligence and dashboard applications that are capable of analyzing and visualizing complex data from multiple sources. The company boasts that everyday business workers can use its products without the need for coding or help from the IT department.
StorageCraft
Headquarters: Draper, Nev.
CEO: Matt Medeiros
New Funding: $187 million
Round: Private Equity
Backers: TA Associates
StorageCraft, a provider of backup, disaster recovery and business continuity systems, received a $187 million equity investment from TA Associates in January, making the Boston-based private equity investor the company's largest shareholder. TA Associates assigned Medeiros, most recently president and CEO of SonicWall, to be StorageCraft's new CEO.
TA Associates sees potential in StorageCraft's technology portfolio and intellectual property to turn it into a $500 million data protection powerhouse.
VeloCloud Networks
Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.
CEO: Sanjay Uppal
New Funding: $27 million
Round: Series C
Backers: March Capital Partners, Cisco Investments, New Enterprise Associates and Venrock.
VeloCloud Networks provides cloud-based, software-defined network services that simplify the deployment of wide area networks over private, broadband Internet and LTE links for distributed enterprises.
VeloCloud said its 2015 sales increased by a factor of 30 over 2014. The company added more than 100 new customers during the year and more than 30 ecosystem partners.
Zerto
Headquarters: Boston
CEO: Ziv Kedem
New Funding: $50 million
Round: Series E
Backers: IVP, 83North, Battery Ventures, Harmony Partners, RTP Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners and director Mark Leslie.
Zerto develops enterprise virtualized data center and cloud disaster recovery software. The fast-growing company recently completed its fourth consecutive year of 100 percent-plus sales growth. The company said it would use the additional capital for development purposes, improving the flexibility of its software-defined, hybrid cloud technology for easier adoption and use by businesses.