Awake Security, a California-based company that specializes in network traffic analysis, has raised $36 million in a Series C funding round.
The investment, which brings the total raised by Awake to nearly $80 million, was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Energize Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Greylock Partners.
The company says it will use the funds to boost research and development, marketing, and sales.
The company’s platform analyzes network traffic in an effort to help organizations identify and handle threats. Awake says its technology has led to the discovery of Russia-linked malware in a municipal water treatment plant, and the identification of thousands of coronavirus-related domains.
“The new network – from the data center to cloud workloads, IoT, and SaaS applications – is fundamental to the business success of organizations, especially as more and more of the workforce becomes distributed. Security solutions have just not been adequate at enabling this transformation – until Awake,” said Karthik Subramanian, partner at Evolution Equity.
“We invested in Awake because we recognize its unique ability to help organizations fight modern threats. The traction and the third-party recognition Awake has received combined with our resources in and knowledge of the U.S. and European markets only bolsters our conviction,” Subramanian added.
Awake claims its annual recurring revenue increased by nearly 700% and its employee headcount doubled over the past year.
The firm hopes that its partnership with Energize Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures will help it expand into the industrial and other critical infrastructure sectors.
“The challenges with protecting critical infrastructure are changing rapidly, and as the attack surface for digital threats expands, so have the blind spots for many organizations. Cybersecurity teams at power, utility, manufacturing, oil and gas, and other companies have been at a disadvantage, but Awake helps even the playing field. We’re partnering with Awake because we believe its platform can have a big impact in the industrial sector,” said Juan Muldoon, partner at Energize Ventures.
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