Meritech Capital Partners Leads Investment in Ionic Security
Distributed Data Protection Startup Secures $40.1 Million to Support its Aggressive Growth Plans and 2015 Launch
ATLANTA, Jan. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ionic Security Inc., delivering the first comprehensive distributed data protection platform for the enterprise, today announced that it has secured $40.1 million in its C series round of funding. Meritech Capital Partners led the round with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), which invested previously, and other existing investors, including Google Ventures, Tech Operators and Jafco Ventures. This latest investment brings Ionic's total funding to-date to $78 million.
"We've been watching Ionic Security for a while now and have been very intrigued and impressed by the company's disruptive approach to solving the persistent data protection problem," said Mike Gordon, Managing Partner at Meritech Capital Partners, who is also joining Ionic Security's board of directors, bringing his wealth of knowledge and experience to the team. "We believe Ionic Security's data protection technology is a true game changer that will allow enterprises to finally get control of their data, wherever it resides – in the cloud, on mobile devices and apps – virtually anywhere. Traditional security technologies that focus on protecting the perimeter have unfortunately fallen short; they simply cannot protect the data. That's where Ionic is breaking the mold."
Ionic Security joins Meritech's impressive portfolio of cloud and security companies including Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, Cloudera, Fortinet, Imperva, Veracode, Sourcefire and many others. This investment from Meritech will allow Ionic to continue building on its momentum and success in the market, especially with large enterprises who continue to see the value in Ionic's innovative data protection platform. It will also help the company to continue to build out its go-to-market strategy as it prepares to launch in 2015.
"We are pleased to have partnered with Meritech Capital, one of the most successful late-stage investment firms, as part of this round of financing as we begin the New Year with rapid company growth and technology acceleration," said Adam Ghetti, Founder and CTO of Ionic Security.
Steve Abbott, CEO of Ionic Security added, "This additional funding will support the debut of our distributed data protection platform that is already being adopted by large Fortune 100 enterprises who understand the importance of protecting their data at the point of creation and throughout its entire lifecycle."
"As data migrates from the enterprise to the cloud and mobile devices, deploying perimeter security is no longer enough," said Ted Schlein, general partner at KPCB, Ionic board member, and renowned cyber security expert. "Ionic is unique in its approach to securing the distributed enterprise and that's why we're continuing to invest as it brings its technology to market in 2015."
Ionic Security was founded in 2011 by a team of security innovators, including CEO Steve Abbott, formerly with PGP Corp. and Forsythe Technology, and Adam Ghetti, founder and CTO, who was named to the 2014 Forbes' 30 under 30 list and named a 2015 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. The company is reinventing data protection by delivering a unified platform for distributed data protection which combines protection, visibility, attribution, and granular control with massive-scale machine learning, and streaming graph analytics to provide enterprises with an unprecedented level of control of their data without the need for, or use of, gateways.
About Meritech Capital Partners
Meritech Capital Partners is a leading provider of late-stage venture capital to category-defining private technology companies, and has been one of the top performing venture firms of the past decade. With over $3 billion under management, Meritech primarily leads investments into companies with proven and differentiated technology, rapidly-growing revenue and experienced management teams. With one of the most active venture portfolios in Silicon Valley, Meritech has experience in, and provides guidance on issues facing rapidly growing companies including management incentive plans, IPO market timing and positioning, M&A strategies and negotiations and adviser selection. Meritech investments in industry-leading companies include Acclarent, Cornerstone-OnDemand, Facebook, Fortinet, Fusion-io, Greenplum, Hybris, Imperva, Netezza, NetSuite, Proofpoint, PopCap, Riverbed, Salesforce.com, Sourcefire, Tableau and Zulily. Meritech is located in Palo Alto, CA and can be found at www.meritechcapital.com.
About Ionic Security
Ionic Security enables and accelerates the use of collaboration technologies like cloud services and BYOD by protecting sensitive data anywhere it travels and wherever it resides, whether on the corporate network, in the cloud or on mobile devices. The first distributed data protection platform of its kind, Ionic Security takes a comprehensive approach to protecting data in today's borderless enterprise by providing access control, intellectual property monitoring, data encryption and policy management, without proxies or gateways or changes in user behavior. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and is backed by leading venture firms such as Meritech Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Jafco Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TechOperators and ff Venture Capital as well as industry experts Christopher Klaus, Ken Levine, Phil Dunkelberger and Dr. Paul Judge. More information is located at www.ionicsecurity.com.
SOURCE Ionic Security Inc.
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