As software breaches multiply, cybersecurity companies are parrying with more comprehensive offerings—and a lot more money—to fight hackers.
Boston-based Confer is trying to make a splash in the cybersecurity industry, and it got a boost today with $17 million in a Series B funding round led by Foundation Capital, with participation from earlier investors Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. Confer previously raised $8 million in a Series A round in January 2014.
Confer sells software to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber attacks at the endpoint—meaning computers, mobile devices, and servers. While some endpoint security companies might only have the power to detect attacks, Confer said its software can also block actions by hackers and disrupt attacks before its enterprise customers’ data are lost or damaged.
Confer is part of a trend among cybersecurity companies who are trying to offer more holistic products that can easily integrate with customers’ systems.
“Customers are looking for an easy, lightweight, but comprehensive solution—one that prevents attacks and enables incident response—for protecting employees on all their devices,” Foundation Capital partner Aditya Singh said in a press release.
Confer has stiff competition in the endpoint security market, including several other better-funded companies based in the Boston area, like Bit9 + Carbon Black, Cybereason, and CounterTack.
Confer said its sales have grown exponentially since last year. It serves customers of all sizes—from 100 endpoint devices to more than 100,000—in tech, retail, finance, life sciences, energy, and communications.
The company has doubled its staff since last year, and employs about 30 people in Massachusetts. That number will likely double over the next year, with most of the hiring in sales and engineering, spokeswoman Kim Novino said. Confer also plans to invest in product development and sales and marketing.
