Tenaya Capital Joins Andreessen Horowitz, Andreas Bechtolsheim, and SV Angel in $18 Million Funding Round
Bluebox Security, a San Francisco, California-based mobile security company that has been operating in stealth mode since 2012, announced today that it has closed an $18 million Series B funding round.
The fresh injection of cash will be used to scale sales and marketing efforts, the company said.
Bluebox co-founder and CEO Caleb Sima previously told SecurityWeek that the company was working on a “very unique solution to market that no one has seen today.”
This week, Sima provided another tiny hint at what the company is working on. “Many companies have invested in mobile security solutions that focus on the device, but don’t address the core issue of mobile security,” Sima said. “We founded Bluebox with a unique approach to mobile security that focuses on what really matters—data.”
Participants in the fudning round include new investor Tenaya Capital, along with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Sun Microsystems Co-founder Andreas Bechtolsheim, and SV Angel.
“Existing mobile security solutions are modeled on an outdated perspective of mobile use that does not meet current demand,” said Brian Melton, Managing Director, Tenaya Capital. “As companies give employees more access to corporate information via mobile devices, they need a solution that meets the needs of both the business and employees. The strong endorsement across Bluebox’s beta customers validates that Bluebox has developed an innovative mobile security solution that enterprises want.”
“The BYOD movement has ushered in a new era—enterprises no longer control or manage the devices and services employees bring into the organization—fundamentally changing the way organizations must address security,” said Scott Weiss, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “Boasting an exceptional team of veteran entrepreneurs with deep roots in information security, Bluebox is well positioned to quickly become the leader in this new frontier of mobile security.”
The company is expected to make a product launch on Feb. 19, a company spokesperson told SecurityWeek.
Prior to launching Bluebox, Sima served as an “Entrepreneur in Residence” at Andreessen Horowitz. Sima also previously served as Chief Technology Officer for HP’s Application Security Center after joining the company as a result of HP’s acquisition of SPI Dynamics in 2007, a company he co-founded and as CTO oversaw development of WebInspect – a Web application security testing tool.
Co-founder Adam Ely was previously CISO of the Heroku business unit at salesforce.com. Prior to salesforce.com, Adam led security operations, application security, and compliance for TiVo. Before TiVo, he led security functions at Disney.
In July 2013, Bluebox was credited with discovering a serious vulnerability in Android, which would allow attackers to easily turn legitimate apps into Trojans, without affecting the cryptographic signature. In this SecurityWeek podcast, Ely discusses the flaw, which was called an Android Master Key Vulnerability.
Along with this latest funding round, Brian Melton from Tenaya Capital will join Bluebox Security’s board of directors.