Funding rounds being used to bolster channel plans

Money continues to pour into the channel and to those firms that operate with partners as their main go-to-market strategy.

This year has seen a wave of private equity investment across the industry and Vectra AI, Wasabi and Deep Instinct can now be added to that list.

Network detection and response specialist Vectra AI has secured $130m in funding from a round led by Blackstone Growth.

The firm has an established channel, working with the likes of Cloud Distribution, Orange Cyberdefense, Core to Cloud and Cyberfit, and revamped its partner programme last summer.

Armed with this latest round of funding, the firm intends to bolster its position in the market further and tap into the ongoing demand for security products.

“Over the past year, we have witnessed a continuous series of the most impactful and widespread cyber attacks in history,” said Hitesh Sheth, president and chief executive officer at Vectra. “To protect their employees and digital assets, our customers require security solutions that are smarter than today’s adversaries and provide coverage for cloud, datacentres and SaaS [software-as-a-service] applications.

“As we look to the future, Blackstone’s global presence, operational resources and in-house technology expertise will help us achieve our mission to become one of the dominant cyber security companies in the world.”

Cloud storage player Wasabi has also been engaged with the investment community and has landed $112m in Series C funding, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, and intends using some of that money to bolster its channel activities.

The firm has made it clear that the proceeds of the funding round will be used to support an expansion of its resellers and distributors, to open datacentres in new international markets, expand head count and invest in building the brand internationally with more marketing support for its channel partners. 

Wasabi CEO & co-founder David Friend said that the funding, which brings the total equity financing raised by the firm to $219m so far, as a “watershed event”.

“Storing the world’s data in the cloud is one of the biggest opportunities in the IT industry, and we are now well positioned to secure a leadership role in the evolution of the cloud,” he said. “We will continue to invest in our proprietary software, grow our channel, enhance our brand and expand storage capacity around the world.”

Meanwhile, security player Deep Instinct plans to use some of the $100m it raised in Series D funding to support its go-to-market strategy. The latest money was raised by funds and accounts managed from BlackRock, with participation from Untitled Investments, the Tudor Group, an investment by Anne Wojcicki, and existing investors, including Millennium, Unbound and Coatue Management, among others.

“As we enter a new phase of hyper-growth, this investment round will significantly expand our go-to-market capabilities while at the same time increasing our best-in-class deep learning research and product development groups,” said Guy Caspi, CEO at Deep Instinct.

The firm works with partners and has an MSSP offering that gives those looking to add deep learning into their security mix the option to do so.