Cequence Security, a US-based operator of an application security platform, reeled in $17m yesterday in a series B round led by the corporate venturing vehicle of computing technology manufacturer Dell.
Dell Technologies Capital was joined by venture capital firm Shasta Ventures in the round.
Cequence has developed software that uses artificial intelligence technology to protect web, mobile and application services from a range of automated bot and manual attacks, including account fraud and content scraping.
The application security platform, which can be deployed in the cloud or on premise, analyses behaviours and intents in web traffic to identify and shut down bad bots.
Cequence will use the funding to provide additional security service modules, as well as to fund the expansion of its sales and marketing efforts in the US and international markets.
Deepak Jeevankumar, managing director at Dell Technologies Capital, said: “The application security market is certainly ripe for transformation due to automation of business logic cyberattacks and expanding attack surface aided by exponentially-increasing usage of IaaS clouds, APIs and mobile apps. Cequence Security is well positioned to be a major disruptor.
“Larry (CEO of Cequence) and his team transformed the network security market by leading the business team at Palo Alto Networks in the years of hyper-growth. We believe they can do the same to the application security market.”
Shasta Ventures led the company’s $8m series A round in February 2018.