US-based cybersecurity technology producer Cylance, backed by computer company Dell, financial services firm Capital One and healthcare software developer TenEleven, raised $100m yesterday in a series D round.
The amount represents a first close, though Cylance has not revealed a final target size.
The round was co-led by Blackstone Opportunities Fund and Insight Venture Partners. Existing, unnamed backers also returned.
Dell Ventures, Capital One Ventures and TenEleven Ventures previously contributed to a $42m series C round in July 2015, alongside lead investor DFJ Growth, KKR, Thomvest, DraperNexus, Fairhaven Capital, Khosla Ventures and Blackstone.
Blackstone, Khosla, Fairhaven and private individuals supplied $20m in series B capital in 2014. Khosla and Fairhaven previously co-led a $15m series A round in 2013.
Cylance operates a cybersecurity platform dubbed CylanceProtect, which relies on artificial intelligence to protect networks from advanced threats such as zero-days – a type of attack that exploits unpatched vulnerabilities that were not previously known. CylanceProtect learns from previous intrusion attempts to increase efficiency.
Cylance will use the money to expand its sales, marketing and engineering programs.