Simply two years in the past, VC funding to cybersecurity startups was on hearth. $23 billion flooded the sector, per Crunchbase. However in 2023, cybersecurity upstarts solely noticed a 3rd of that — the results of the distinctive surge in 2021, bloated valuations and buyers cautious of market instability.
However there’s at all times some winners throughout down instances.
Yesterday, NinjaOne, an IT platform for endpoint administration, security and visibility, introduced that it raised $231.5 million in a Sequence C funding spherical led by Iconiq Development.
The mammoth spherical, which was joined by Frank Slootman, the chairman and CEO of Snowflake, and Amit Agarwal, the president of Datadog, values NinjaOne at $1.9 billion, in line with co-founder and CEO Sal Sferlazza.
Sferlazza says that NinjaOne wasn’t seeking to fundraise, however acquired inbound curiosity from “quite a few” potential buyers — together with Iconiq, apparently.
“Iconiq has a powerful historical past of serving to high firms like Snowflake, Datadog and Crowdstrike attain their potential,” Sferlazza informed information.killnetswitch in an e-mail interview. “We believed an funding from Iconiq would assist be sure that NinjaOne is well-positioned for long-term success. We stay centered on scaling our enterprise and workforce to proceed to enhance our product choices and to assist our progress globally as our buyer base and product choices mature.”
Picture Credit: NinjaOne
Sferlazza and NinjaOne’s president and CFO, Chris Matarese, launched Austin, Texas-based NinjaOne in 2014. Sferlazza says that he was carefully concerned with early improvement efforts, working with NinjaOne’s founding workforce to construct endpoint administration, patching and assist instruments.
“We acknowledged a large want to assist organizations handle their endpoints — a necessity that solely grew with the pandemic wave of distant and hybrid work,” he stated. “Endpoints pose a major danger and alternative within the post-pandemic period, and — amid the unprecedented rise of generative AI — NinjaOne is concentrated on automating and simplifying IT operations for our prospects.”
“Once we based NinjaOne, we got down to develop a variety of merchandise that prioritize buyer success,” Sferlazza stated. “That continues to be our primary precedence at the moment, and this focus has enabled us to develop a powerful enterprise.”
At present, NinjaOne’s warchest stands at $282.7 million as its income grows 70% year-over-year.
Sferlazza says that the proceeds from the most recent funding spherical can be put towards increasing NinjaOne’s ~1,000-person workforce and investing in automating “the toughest components” of IT. “[S]treamlining endpoint administration, bolstering security and fast-tracking new expertise deployment … has allowed us to supply unparalleled buyer success,” he continued.
Added Iconiq’s Roy Luo, who’s joined NinjaOne’s board of administrators, in a press launch: “Beneath Sal and Chris’s distinctive management, NinjaOne has demonstrated spectacular product velocity, resulting in elevated market share, geographic enlargement and buyer progress. We’re thrilled to assist their dynamic vitality, relentless dedication to buyer success, and continued progress trajectory through our world platform.”
