Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) company Netskope raised $300m in funding led by existing investor ICONIQ Growth.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Base Partners, Sapphire Ventures, and Geodesic Capital. Following this round, Netskope has achieved a post-money valuation of $7.5bn.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand both its platform and go-to-market initiatives.
Led by Sanjay Beri, Netskope provides a cloud-native SASE platform of technologies that enable secure enterprise digital transformation and secure remote connectivity using integrated Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) capabilities. Its cloud-native SASE architecture also includes NewEdge, a connected private cloud, which enables fast and secure access from any location to data, applications, and websites wherever they reside.
The company’s SASE approach also includes a private cloud providing fast and secure access from any location to data, applications, and websites.
Founded in 2012, Netskope employs 1,392 people and has now raised $1.bn in eight rounds of funding. In February 2020, it closed a $340m Series G funding round led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities on a $2.8bn valuation.
The latest funding round propelled the company’s valuation past fellow security upstarts Rubrik, Snyk and OneTrust. Like Netskope, rival Tanium has raised more than $1bn and has been a rumoured initial public offering (IPO) candidate for years.
Commenting on the round, Beri said, We started Netskope because we saw a cloud-centric, digital-first future of business that simply can’t be achieved using legacy approaches to security and networking. We were SASE before the term SASE existed, and today we are seeing our vision manifest across the globe as enterprises increasingly turn to Netskope to enable secure digital transformation.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, ICONIQ Growth Founding Partner Will Griffith added, “The demand for Netskope as part of a properly designed SASE architecture is very strong, and Sanjay and the entire Netskope team are seizing their moment. Netskope is pointing the way to where cloud, networking, security, and data protection are headed long-term.”
The company is embroiled in a few lawsuits with top cloud security rival Bitglass, with Bitglass alleging in a July 2020 complaint that Netskope and ex-executive Joseph Green exploited confidential information obtained through Green to gain an improper advantage in the marketplace. Green stands accused of surreptitiously taking confidential Bitglass files and reports and bringing them Netskope.
In February 2021, Netskope sued Bitglass to shoot down patent infringement allegations Bitglass has been making on its website and in emails to Netskope customers. Bitglass was accused of emailing Netskope’s customers and telling the customers they’re infringing upon two Bitglass CASB patents when they use Netskope’s systems.
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