Cloud Security Startup Palerra Lands $17M In Funding, Looks To Build Out Channel Program
Hot security startup Palerra has landed $17 million in funding for its cloud security automation platform, money the company said it will funnel, in part, toward building out its budding channel program.
Palerra offers LORIC, a security platform that aims to help enterprises automate the process of threat detection, incident response, analytics and more around cloud and Software-as-a-Service offerings, such as Amazon Web Services, Office 365 and Salesforce.
The $17 million Series B funding, announced Wednesday, brings the company's total funds raised to $25 million. The most recent round added new investor August Capital, who joined previous investors Norwest Venture Partners, Wing Venture Capital and Engineering Capital.
[Related: Security Startup Soha Raises $9.7M To Launch CSP Program]
CEO Rohit Gupta said the new funding would be put toward investments in sales and marketing, tools and processes to better support customers and channel partners, and product innovations.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is in the middle of initiating a formal channel program, something Gupta said would be launched in the "very near future." Gupta said he plans to drive a "substantial" percentage of company sales through the channel within the next three years, a push he said he is driving personally.
"My intention is to scale this and make it a channel-friendly service offering. At the end of the day, we believe that the channel gives us reach," Gupta said.
Gupta said Palerra could be an "amplifier" for solution providers looking to expand beyond the bread-and-butter security around networks, end points and servers. That is especially important, he said, as market adoption of cloud and SaaS applications accelerates in parallel to a growing threat landscape.
"[Cloud and SaaS adoption] has happened against the backdrop of what is the most intense threat landscape we've ever seen. ... What that tells us is that the amount of skills in the workforce to do the forensics and analytics, and dealing with these threat issues, is at a premium," Gupta said.
In tandem with the funding announcement, Palerra's technology also was recognized by Gartner as a "Cool Vendor" in the risk management area. Since its last round of funding in February of last year, the company has seen strong adoption by global enterprises, has grown head count and formed partnerships with vendors, such as Microsoft, AWS and Salesforce.
"I think that's a very strong recognition of the company as an early innovator in the space and the upshot of driving some real value," Gupta said. "From our vantage point, I think it's an upshot as we recruit new channel partners and take the message out to clients that there's a better way to secure their applications."
PUBLISHED APRIL 8, 2015