Startup Lookout Mobile Security Scores $40 Million In VC Funding

Lookout Mobile Security's eponymous flagship application is available free of charge for Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. It protects mobile devices from malware, spyware and unsafe web sites, and also handles backup and recovery of personal data and can locate a mobile device if it's lost or stolen.

An important intelligence component comes from Lookout’s back end Mobile Threat Network, which uses cloud computing and algorithmic analysis to scan mobile applications listed on app stores, identify mobile security threats and stop them before they can infect a device.

Lookout also provides an API that channels threat data to partners, enabling them to keep malware out of their app stores.

"[Lookout Mobile Security has] been the first service to detect and protect against many major threats, often within minutes of the appearance of threat in app stores and before the threat reaches a user’s phone," said Jeff Jordan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz who is also joining Lookout Mobile Security's board of directors, in a blog post.

Lookout Mobile Security is led by co-founder and CEO John Hering, who co-founded the company in 2007 along with CIO James Burgess and CTO Kevin Mahaffey. The three stole the show at Defcon in 2005 with their Bluetooth Sniper project, which showed how to carry out an attack on a Bluetooth device from 1.2 miles away.

The company has built a base of more than 12 million users since launching its flagship offering in 2009, and it's adding one million users each month, according to Hering. "Your phone has become your lifeline, and we are committed to providing you with the best possible protection for it," he said in a blog post.

Also taking part in Lookout Mobile Security's latest venture capital round are current investors Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners and Index Ventures.