Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of financial services firm Citi, yesterday joined a $100m series D round for US-based cybersecurity technology producer Cylance.
The round, first announced earlier in June, was co-led by Blackstone Opportunities Fund and Insight Venture Partners. Unnamed existing backers also participated in the round, the size of which was reported as $100m at the time, though Cylance confirmed it only achieved that close with Citi’s investment.
Founded in 2012, Cylance has built a platform that uses artificial intelligence to prevent malicious attacks and zero-days – a kind of hacking that relies on unpatched vulnerabilities previously unknown. The platform learns from previous intrusion attempts to boost efficiency.
The round will support an expansion of the company’s sales, marketing and engineering activities.
Dell Ventures, Capital One Ventures and TenEleven Ventures – the respective investment vehicles of computer manufacturer Dell, financial services provider Capital One and healthcare software producer TenEleven – previously took part in Cylance’s $42m series C round in July 2015.
DFJ Growth led the series C round, which also included KKR, Thomvest, DraperNexus, Fairhaven Capital, Khosla Ventures and Blackstone.
Blackstone, Khosla, Fairhaven and private investors invested $20m in series B funding in 2014, following a $15m series A round in 2013 co-led by Khosla and Fairhaven.