Cloud Security Vendor iboss Raises $145M To Further Grow Its SASE Model

The funding comes on the heels of six-figure investments in its top rivals and a month after iBoss snagged former Cylance global channel chief May Mitchell to serve as its senior vice president of marketing.

Iboss has closed a $145 million funding round to support the company’s rapid growth and better deliver network security through the cloud.

The Boston-based vendor said it has consolidated networking and cloud protection into a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) model that provides infinite scalability while ensuring fast, secure and compliant connections. The growth financing was led by NightDragon and Francisco Partners, according to iboss.

“Implementing modern architecture that provides network security in the cloud is the best way to ensure safety and productivity, even as remote workers rely more and more on fast connections for things like video meetings and online productivity apps,” iboss CEO Paul Martini said in a statement.

[Related: Cloud Security Vendor iBoss Bulks Up To Handle Growing Client Base]

Iboss was founded in 2003, employs 230 people and previously raised $35 million in a November 2015 Series A round led by Goldman Sachs. The company in December hired former Cylance global channel chief May Mitchell to serve as its senior vice president of marketing. Iboss didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

The company said its platform defends organizations from cyberattacks by screening and securing all internet traffic in the cloud, regardless of device or location. Iboss’ proprietary architecture is built for the cloud from the ground up, according to the company, allowing organizations to migrate web gateway proxies, network firewalls and Zero Trust Network Access directly to the cloud.

“Iboss has created the largest, most modern and comprehensive SASE security platform on the market and is the only platform that can fully transition organizations from on-prem security appliances to SaaS security delivered in the cloud,” NightDragon founder and iboss Co-Chairman Dave DeWalt said in a statement.

Iboss’ funding comes on the heels of six-figure investments in its top rivals, with Secure Web Gateway (SWG) provider Menlo Security in November closing a $100 million Series E round led by Vista Equity Partners. In February 2020, Netskope hauled in $340 million from Sequoia Capital Global Equities as the company expands from Cloud Access Security Broker technology into SWG and data protection.

And category leader Zscaler enjoyed sensational growth in 2020, with investors boosting the company’s stock by 312 percent last year to $199.02 per share on a valuation of $26.71 billion. Zscaler was the only Leader in Gartner’s December 2020 Magic Quadrant for SWG, while iboss, Menlo Security, Netskope and Symantec (off its 2016 acquisition of Blue Coat Systems) were all recognized as Visionaries.

“As the traditional enterprise perimeter dissolves, security solutions need to enable safe access to apps and services anytime, anywhere,” Francisco Partners Head of Credit Scott Eisenberg said in a statement. “Iboss’ cloud-first solution was designed to address this transformational infrastructure shift.”

Iboss said its platform directly connects users to offices as well as cloud applications, eliminating the need to route internet traffic through centralized, on-premises applications. The company’s open platform allows customers flexibility in choosing whichever malware engine, malware feed, threat intelligence and log analytics offering is best for them, according to iboss.

This has facilitated more collaboration between the leading cybersecurity and technology vendors, which iboss said has facilitated better protection and efficacy.

“Iboss is an open security platform that allows organizations to apply the security engines and log analytics platforms of their choosing compared to existing closed SASE solutions that lack this flexibility and restrict better security due to lack of collaboration with top cybersecurity intelligence vendors,” DeWalt said in a statement.