Cylance Lands $100M In Funding, Will Expand Marketing And Sales Efforts With Partners

Hoping to build on its accelerating momentum in the next-generation endpoint security market, Cylance has obtained $100 million in Series D funding.

The funding was led by new investors Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Insight Venture Partners, as well as existing investors, the company said Wednesday. That amount adds to the company's $42 million in Series C funding, revealed in July 2015, by DFJ Growth, KKR, Dell Ventures, CapitalOne Ventures and TenEleven Ventures.

Kevin Pouche, chief operating officer at K logix Security, a Brookline, Mass.-based Cylance partner, said he hopes the latest round of funding will help Cylance further establish itself as the standout leader in the next-generation endpoint security market.

[Related: NTT Herds Its Security Services Forces Under One Umbrella]

Cylance offers a solution that does away with the signature-based technology used by traditional endpoint security vendors and uses mathematics and algorithms to pick out suspect behavior.

"Even without the funding, they're a hot company in a hot space. … I think this will allow them to work with their key partners and invest in marketing activities, which is huge," Pouche said. "It's needed because this is such a crowded space. … There are a lot of startups with funding that contribute to the noise."

Pouche said K logix has added "substantially" to its Cylance rollouts in recent months, saying he is a "big fan" of the technology and how channel-friendly the Irvine, Calif.-based company is. He said he would like to see Cylance invest in co-marketing with partners, growing out its channel and further refining its product.

Nick Warner, senior vice president of worldwide sales, said the $100 million will go a long way toward fueling Cylance's global expansion and channel go-to-market strategy.

"This funding is really about helping us continue on our mission [to secure the world's endpoints], double down on that and continue to be a 100 percent channel company and expand our reach," Warner said. "This is really about fueling that effort."

Specifically, Warner said, Cylance plans to add channel resources in the United States, including channel sales engineers, channel sales representatives, channel operations, marketing development funds and more. He said Cylance will be looking to add new partners in the region and penetrate further into existing customers.

Warner said Cylance will also be looking to expand internationally by signing up two-tier distribution partners in regions around the world, including APAC, EMEA and Latin America.

Warner said the funding is "validation" of Cylance's current channel and go-to-market strategy, which has led to 1,089 percent product billings growth and 785 percent customer growth since the company started in 2012. That growth has helped Cylance stand out from its startup competitors in the next-generation endpoint security market, as well as against legacy anti-virus vendors, he said.

"It's a validation on what we're doing," Warner said, "because overall, from a macro perspective, this year has been a very challenging environment for other startups in cybersecurity and endpoint security. Funding is really becoming harder to come by, and investors are becoming much more discerning. It's a tremendous validation of Cylance as a company."

Warner said partners can expect to see Cylance "double down" on its marketing, sales approach and mission around endpoint security.

"Cylance is here to stay, and we will continue to grow and truly be a global enterprise company that is providing coverage to fulfill our mission to protect every endpoint on the planet," Warner said.