Netskope, a US-based networking and security software provider backed by computing technology provider Dell, closed a $300m funding round on Friday at a $7.5bn post-money valuation.
The round was led by investment firm Iconiq Growth and also featured venture capital firm Sequoia Capital’s Global Equities unit alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Base Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Geodesic Capital and unnamed existing investors.
Founded in 2012, Netskope has built a cloud-based secure access service edge (SASE) platform that enables enterprises to securely access the internet, applications and company infrastructure from any device. SASE is a technology category that unifies wide-area networking and security services in one software product.
Sanjay Beri, co-founder and CEO of Netskope, said: “We were SASE before the term SASE existed and today we are seeing our vision manifest across the globe as enterprises increasingly turn to Netskope to enable secure digital transformation.”
Netskope has raised just over $1bn in overall funding and was valued at almost $3bn in a $340m round led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities in February 2020 that also featured Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Iconiq Capital, Sapphire Ventures, PSP Investments, Lightspeed, Accel, Base Partners, Geodesic Capital and Social Capital.
Lightspeed had led a $169m series F round for the company in 2018 that included Accel, Geodesic Capital, Iconiq Capital, Base Partners, Sapphire Ventures and Social Capital. All of them bar Base Partners had also taken part in its $100m series E, which was co-led by Lightspeed and Accel in 2017.
Dell has not revealed details regarding its investment in Netskope, but it is likely to have occurred before the company’s corporate venturing unit, Dell Technologies Capital, emerged from stealth in 2017.