Contrast Security Raises $150M Led By Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s Equity Fund

Contrast Security will use the additional capital – which boosts the DevSecOps company’s valuation to “unicorn” status – to accelerate its global expansion and possibly for strategic acquisitions.

Code security tool developer Contrast Security has raised $150 million in a Series E round of funding, the company said Tuesday, boosting the company’s valuation over the $1 billion “unicorn” threshold.

The funding round was led by Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity fund founded by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Liberty Strategic Capital’s investment in Contrast Security comes just four months after it invested $275 million in Cybereason, an endpoint security tech developer.

Contrast Security said all of its existing investors participated in the latest funding round including Warburg Pincus, Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, Microsoft’s M-12 Fund, AXA Venture Partners and Acero Capital.

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A leading vendor in the DevSecOps space, Contrast Security provides the Contrast Application Security Platform for securing software code throughout the application lifecycle. The technology instruments applications with sensors that detect security vulnerabilities in code and protects applications against attack.

Some of Contrast Security’s customers include DocuSign, AXA, the American Red Cross, BMW and Zurich.

Contrast Security said it will use the additional capital to “further gain market share with accelerated global expansion plans,” following what the company described as growth in EMEA and “rapid customer adoption” in the Asia-Pacific region.

The new funding also provides Contrast Security with “additional flexibility to execute on strategic opportunities and acquisitions,” the company said.

Contrast Security cited a GitLab survey of DevOps teams earlier this year in which 84 percent of developers said they have been releasing code faster than ever before. That comes as businesses ramp up their software development efforts to support digital transformation and other initiatives.

“The global economy is running on software applications. We are now seeing business leaders, including Microsoft and Google, commit publicly to spend billions of dollars in order to decrease cybersecurity risks in today’s fast paced application economy,” said Alan Naumann, Contrast Security CEO, in a statement. “Supported by President Biden’s recent executive order, our customers, governments, and many of the world‘s largest companies are investing in prevention and resilience against software cyber-attacks.”

Mnuchin, founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, is also joining Contrast Security’s Board of Directors.

“Businesses are increasingly dependent on applications to support their critical operations, creating strong demand for solutions like Contrast’s that help developers ensure, in real-time, that the code underlying these applications is secure from evolving threats from hackers and other malign actors,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “We believe the team at Contrast has developed a market leading solution, and we are excited to partner with them as they continue to innovate in the application security space.”

“The new investment from Liberty Strategic Capital and all of our existing investors further validates the universal need for improved code security, Naumann said. “It is an honor to have them support Contrast, especially given Secretary Mnuchin’s experience with a global approach to reduce cyber threats. I also am pleased to welcome Secretary Mnuchin to the Contrast Board of Directors.”