Axis Security Raises $32 Million to Accelerate Growth, Meet Enterprise Demand for "Work from Anywhere" Solutions

Canaan Partners Leads Series B for Zero Trust Access Leader out to Replace VPNs with Simple, More Secure Approach to Remote Application Access

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Axis Security, the leader in Zero Trust Access, today announced $32 million in Series B funding led by Canaan Partners, with participation from existing investors Ten Eleven Ventures and Cyberstarts. Axis will use the funds to accelerate growth and meet market demand driven largely by COVID-19 and the work from anywhere (WFA) movement sweeping the globe. As part of the funding round, Canaan Partners general partner Joydeep Bhattacharyya has joined Axis Security's board of directors.

"Axis has quickly established itself with a differentiated, already proven approach to the decades-old problem of securing application access," said Bhattacharyya. "What has been most impressive to us is how the company has moved quickly and met the opportunity since coming out of stealth in March. It is a testament to the team and the power of the Axis platform. The company is rising at the right moment and we are humbled to become their partner at such a pivotal time."

The new funding will drive Axis' continued development of its Zero Trust platform and expansion outside of North America, while enabling further investment in go-to-market resources, including an expanded channel program and team. Of note, the company today also announced enhancements to its Axis  Application Access Cloud™, as well as integrations with leading security providers CrowdStrike, Splunk and Okta.   

Many organizations have quickly found securely connecting large numbers of users to company data and apps, required by new WFA policies, to be nearly impossible with traditional solutions such as virtual private networks (VPNs). The Axis Security App Access Cloud solves the issue of implicitly open network access with a modern approach. It alleviates the pain points of network-based security associated with VPNs which can be complex, agent-based, slow to deploy and hard to manage, especially when providing access to third-party supply chain partners, vendors, contractors and remote employees at scale.

"Our approach is a proven game-changer for customers," said Dor Knafo, co-founder and CEO of Axis Security. "We're solving one of the most complex security challenges IT faces right now in rapidly onboarding remote workers and third parties simply and securely. Doing this at scale is proving to be far more difficult than many organizations expected. We're giving IT teams a single, managed solution for access, security, control and scalability without the complexity and end-user headaches of what's available today."

"When it comes to application access for third parties, maintaining a Zero Trust posture and having the ability to do continuous security monitoring of every user, request and action is what separates the Axis Application Access Cloud from legacy VPN solutions," said Prabash Coswatte, CISO of leading Hispanic supermarket chain Cardenas Markets.

Alex Doll, founder and managing general partner of Ten Eleven Ventures, stated, "Axis has quickly accelerated its growth with an innovative, cloud-centric approach that reduces the management burden associated with traditional VPN architectures. This technology is a win-win for both IT and end users, easily and rapidly enabling many more kinds of secure access use cases."

Gili Raanan, founder and general partner of Cyberstarts, said, "We are thrilled to be early partners with Dor, Gil and their entire team, all of whom are doing amazing work to disrupt the marketplace at a time when it is ripe for transformational change. With Axis' technology, we expect VPNs to be significantly displaced over the next couple of years and that's why we are all in on Axis."

Founded by Knafo and Gil Azrielant, Axis has raised a total of $49 million. Ten Eleven Ventures led the Series A, while Cyberstarts led the seed round, both announced in March 2020. Additional investors included Dan Amiga, founder of Fireglass, and board member Michael Fey, co-founder and CEO of Zero Abstraction and former president of Symantec and Blue Coat.

About Axis Security
Axis Security's Application Access Cloud™ is a purpose-built cloud-based solution that makes application access amazingly simple. Built on a zero-trust approach, the solution offers a new agentless model that delivers the easiest and safest way to connect users anywhere on any device, to Enterprise apps, without ever touching the network or the apps themselves. Axis Security is a privately-held company backed by Canaan Partners, Ten Eleven Ventures and Cyberstarts. It is headquartered in San Mateo, California with research and development in Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information, visit www.axissecurity.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Canaan Partners
For nearly 30 years, Canaan Partners has been investing in entrepreneurs with visionary ideas to improve the way we live our lives. With over $5 billion under management and more than 160 exits to date, Canaan has funded some of the world's most innovative companies in both technology and healthcare. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Canaan also has offices in New York City and Westport, Connecticut. For more information, visit us at www.canaan.com and follow us on Twitter @canaanpartners.

About Ten Eleven Ventures
Ten Eleven Ventures is the original venture capital firm focused solely on investing in digital security. The firm invests globally and at all stages, from seed to growth (the latter via its Joint Investment Alliance with KKR). Since its founding in 2015, Ten Eleven Ventures has raised nearly $500M and invested in 25 leading cybersecurity companies including Twistlock, Verodin, Cylance, KnowBe4, Darktrace, and Ping Identity. For more information, visit https://www.1011vc.com and follow us on Twitter @1011vc.

About Cyberstarts
Cyberstarts is a venture capital firm focused on cyber security and is backed by successful cyber security entrepreneurs. Cyberstarts is a leading platform for amazing teams of entrepreneurs solving the next big pain points in the cyber security world. Cyberstarts founder, Gili Raanan, was the first investor in cyber security focused companies like Armis, Adallom, Onavo and Fireblocks.  www.cyberstarts.com

SOURCE Axis Security

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