AlienVault, which markets security services to fit within modest company budgets, announced today it has raised $52 million in a Series E funding round led by a new investor, Institutional Venture Partners.
That brings San Mateo, CA-based AlienVault’s fundraising total close to $116 million. Trident Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GGV Capital, and other existing investors also joined in the company’s Series E round.
AlienVault is a prominent actor in the movement to crowdsource threat detection. Through the company’s Open Threat Exchange (OTX), more than 26,000 partners, including Intel Security and HP, share details about threats they have detected. First launched in 2012, the exchange was one of the first networks set up to pool and correlate reports about cyber attacks from multiple security organizations. The exchange, paired with AlienVault’s unified security management system, serves the needs of more than 2,000 customers, including NASA and other government agencies as well as businesses such as SaveMart, Columbia University, and Peet’s Coffee & Tea.
At least three other Bay Area companies provide crowd-sourced threat intelligence as a component of their cybersecurity offerings, including Redwood Shores, CA-based Imperva (NYSE: [[ticker:IMPV]]). Also on the list are Synack and ThreatStream, both based in Redwood City, CA. ThreatStream is a partner in AlienVault’s OTX.
AlienVault says it has had a record year, with more than 65 percent growth in bookings and new customer growth of more than 75 percent. The company plans to use its new capital to beef up global marketing and fund further innovations in security technology. The global market for cybersecurity services could approach $77 billion this year, according to a Gartner report cited by AlienVault.
AlienVault CEO Barmak Meftah, says technology alone cannot overcome developing cybersecurity threats.
“At AlienVault, we unify the security products, intelligence and community which enable all organizations – regardless of size – to quickly detect and respond to today’s threats,” Meftah (pictured above) said in a statement on the funding round.
