Netskope, a US-based cloud cybersecurity software provider backed by computing technology producer Dell, completed a $340m funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital’s Global Equities unit yesterday.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Iconiq Capital, Sapphire Ventures, PSP Investments, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Base Partners, Geodesic Capital and Social Capital also contributed to the round, which the company said valued it at almost $3bn.
Founded in 2012, Netskope has built a platform called Netskope Security Cloud that offers visibility of, and protection from security threats across cloud services, apps and websites in real time. It has now raised about $740m in total.
The round comes after a year when the company opened a new head office in addition to satellite offices across the US, France, Brazil and Japan while entering new markets including Brazil, Australia, Italy, Spain, Germany, Singapore and Mexico.
Netskope chief executive Sanjay Beri said: “Since inception, we have always focused on architecting a true cloud platform that, over time, will secure and govern all of an enterprise’s traffic as the perimeter evolves into a new high-performance worldwide cloud edge.
“This latest investment from the top enterprise and security investors in the world is proof of not only our enormous success in establishing Netskope as the new gold standard for cloud-delivered security, but also that the astounding level of global demand we are seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The company secured $169m in a November 2018 series F round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and backed by Accel, Geodesic Capital, Iconiq Capital, Base Partners, Sapphire Ventures and Social Capital at a reported post-money valuation of more than $1bn.
Lightspeed and Accel co-led Netskope’s $100m series E round the year before, investing with fellow existing backers Social Capital and Iconiq Capital as well as new investors Sapphire Ventures and Geodesic Capital.
Dell has not disclosed exactly when it invested in Netskope but it was likely before the corporate’s investment arm, Dell Technologies Capital, emerged from stealth in May 2017.