US-based cybersecurity technology provider Awake Security raised $36m on Wednesday in a series C round featuring mass media group Liberty Global’s corporate venture capital vehicle, Liberty Global Ventures.
Venture capital firm Evolution Equity Partners led the round, which included Energize Ventures, Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, the VC arm of private equity firm Bain Capital.
Founded in 2014, Awake Security has created a cybersecurity software platform that analyses network traffic in detail to identify attacks that would otherwise blend into ordinary network activity. It will use the cash to beef up sales, marketing and research and development.
Awake Security’s chief executive, Rahul Kashyap, said: “Awake has assembled the best minds in networking, machine learning, data science, cybersecurity and other disciplines to create something entirely new that fills a massive void in the security market.
“By partnering with Evolution Equity with its deep US and European network and cybersecurity expertise, and strategic investors Energize Ventures and Liberty Global, we are building on that momentum to bring the Awake platform to even more organizations around the globe.”
Karthik Subramanian, a partner at Evolution Equity, has joined the company’s board of directors in connection with the round, which Awake Security said brought its overall funding to almost $80m.
The company had emerged from stealth in 2017 with $31m from Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. It has not revealed details of additional financing and did not identify any of the other series C participants as existing backers.
