Shape Security, the Mountain View, California-based web security firm that recently emerged from stealth mode, today announced that it has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners.
This new large funding round brings the total raised by the company to $66 million.
Last month, the company revealed its flagship product dubbed the “ShapeShifter”, a 1U network security appliance that protects websites by leveraging real-time polymorphism—techniques that malware authors have long used to evade anti-virus detection solutions.
The ShapeShifter appliance, what the company describes as a “botwall”, challenges attackers (or bots) by removing fixed web site elements to essentially transform web applications into moving targets transparently, while legitimate users see the original, unchanged user interface.
“We’re making it the attacker’s problem to figure out how to be able to create a scripted programmatic attack against an application which is constantly rewriting itself,” Shuman Ghosemajumder, Shape Security’s VP of Strategy, told SecurityWeek in January.
According to the company, the new funds will be used to “enhance the capabilities of its real-time polymorphic defense” and to build a global sales force.
“Since our launch last month, we have been inundated with inquiries from customers all over the world,” said Derek Smith, Shape Security CEO. “We have worked with early adopters in financial services, healthcare, and retail, and our goal with this new funding is to scale quickly to protect every industry.”
Norwest and Sierra Ventures join existing investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers, Venrock, Google Ventures, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, and Allegis Capital in this round.
Related: Shape Security Emerges From Stealth Mode Swinging at Malware and Bots