US-based cybersecurity technology developer Vectra closed a $36m series D round on Wednesday featuring IT service providers Nissho Electronics and Wipro, the latter through corporate venturing division Wipro Ventures.
The round was led by growth equity fund Atlantic Bridge and included Irish sovereign wealth fund Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) as well as Khosla Ventures, Accel, IA Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and DAG Ventures.
Founded in 2011, Vectra has developed a software platform called Cognito that uses artificial intelligence to automate the detection and response to attempted cyberattacks on enterprise infrastructure.
The round boosted Vectra’s total equity funding to $123m to date and will be used to strengthen its global sales and marketing activities, and to accelerate the development of Cognito.
The company will also open a research and development centre in Dublin, and intends to hire up to 100 new staff members over the next five years.
Vectra received $35m in a 2015 round led by DAG Ventures that included chipmaker Intel’s corporate VC arm Intel Capital, networking technology producer Juniper Networks, Khosla Ventures, Accel, IA and AME.
Wipro Ventures provided additional funding the following year to enable Vectra to close the round at $43.8m.
Juniper Networks’ Junos Innovation Fund and Intel Capital had already contributed to a $25m series C round for Vectra in 2014 that was led by Accel and backed by Khosla, IA and AME.
Hitesh Sheth, president and CEO of Vectra, said: “Vectra had an incredible year in 2017, during which we achieved record revenue growth of 181% over the previous year and delivered further product innovations to our customers.
“We’re excited to add Atlantic Bridge, ISIF and Nissho as investors. This investment will accelerate our mission to transform cybersecurity with AI, including delivering additional innovations through our new Dublin R&D centre.”