Mocana, a San Francisco based company that focuses on mobile and smart device security solutions, announced today that it has received a strategic investment from Intel Capital, the global investment arm of chip giant Intel.
Interestingly, this investment from Intel follows a strategic investment in Mocana from Symantec made back in May 2010, which led the company’s C-round of venture financing. Intel owns McAfee, Symantec’s biggest competitor, and now both companies have a stake in the device security startup.
Intel’s investment in Mocana further validates the importance of security in the escalating number of Internet connected devices including smartphones, medical devices, industrial automation, sensors, smart grid, automotive, connected home appliances, game consoles, televisions, set-top boxes and consumer electronics, and more.
Connected “smart devices,” including smartphones, represent a $900 billion hardware, software and services ecosystem that is rapidly growing. Mocana has established itself as a leader in this technically challenging market space, with market proven solutions that are device and network independent. Securing these devices is especially difficult because of the unique security threats that always on, resource constrained devices represent across every sector of the economy.
“Mobile device security is fundamental to the success of any mobile endeavor, be it personal, commercial or governmental,” said Dave Flanagan, managing director, Intel Capital. “Mocana’s special expertise in securing devices and the information that runs across them will be crucial to the success of the Internet of Things, especially in the mobile domain.”
Privately-held Mocana launched in 2004 and counts over 150 companies that have licensed its solutions, which include a combination of software resident on the device and context-intelligent security services delivered from the cloud. Mocana’s platform approach protects not only the devices, but the applications and services that run across them as well. Mocana’s customers include Intel, General Electric, Cisco, Honeywell, General Dynamics, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung, LG, Good and Siemens, among others. Mocana technology secures devices ranging from Android smartphones for consumers, to smart-grid infrastructure devices for utilities, medical devices and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s).
“The future of the Internet will be heavily influenced by smart devices, including smartphones,” said Adrian Turner, Mocana CEO, “We believe Intel Capital’s strategic investment in Mocana, the company that intimately understands the defense in depth solutions needed for device security, will position them well for what’s next. With the right smart device security and information management platform, customers will have confidence to consume online services and transact via their connected devices. They will also be able to automate device enabled business processes, at unprecedented scale. Mocana is at the center of this important shift.”
