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Orca Security, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that offers an agent-less security platform for protecting cloud-based assets, today announced that it has raised a $210 million Series C round at a $1.2 billion valuation. The round was led by Alphabetâs independent growth fund CapitalG and Redpoint Ventures. Existing investors GGV Capital, ICONIQ Growth and angel syndicate Silicon Valley CISO Investment also participated. YL Ventures, which led Orcaâs seed round and participated in previous rounds, is not participating in this round â and itâs worth noting that the firm recently sold its stake in Axonius after that company reached unicorn status.
If all of this sounds familiar, that may be because Orca only raised its $55 million Series B round in December, after it announced its $20.5 million Series A round in May. Thatâs a lot of funding rounds in a short amount of time, but something weâve been seeing more often in the last year or so.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/orca-security-avi-gil.png[/URL]
Orca Security co-founders Gil Geron (left) and Avi Shua (right). Image Credits: Orca Security
As Orca co-founder and CEO Avi Shua told me, the company is seeing impressive growth and it â and its investors â want to capitalize on this. The company ended last year beating its own forecast from a few months before, which he noted was already aggressive, by more than 50%. Its current slate of customers includes Robinhood, Databricks, Unity, Live Oak Bank, Lemonade and BeyondTrust.
âWe are growing at an unprecedented speed,â Shua said. âWe were 20-something people last year. We are now closer to a hundred and we are going to double that by the end of the year. And yes, weâre using this funding to accelerate on every front, from dramatically increasing the product organization to add more capabilities to our platform, for post-breach capabilities, for identity access management and many other areas. And, of course, to increase our go-to-market activities.â
YL Ventures sells its stake in cybersecurity unicorn Axonius for $270M
Shua argues that most current cloud security tools donât really work in this new environment. Many, because they are driven by metadata, can only detect a small fraction of the risks, and agent-based solutions may take months to deploy and still not cover a businessâ entire cloud estate. The promise of Orca Security is that it can not only cover a companyâs entire range of cloud assets but that it is also able to help security teams prioritize the risks they need to focus on. It does so by using what the company calls its âSideScanningâ technology, which allows it to map out a companyâs entire cloud environment and file systems.
âAlmost all tools are essentially just looking at discrete risk trees and not the forest. The risk is not just about how pickable the lock is, itâs also where the lock resides and whatâs inside the box. But most tools just look at the issues themselves and prioritize the most pickable lock, ignoring the business impact and exposure â and we change that.â
Itâs no secret that there isnât a lot of love lost between Orca and some of its competitors. Last year, Palo Alto Networks sent Orca Security a sternly worded letter (PDF) to stop it from comparing the two services. Shua was not amused at the time and decided to fight it. âI completely believe there is space in the markets for many vendors, and theyâve created a lot of great products. But I think the thing that simply cannot be overlooked, is a large company that simply tries to silence competition. This is something that I believe is counterproductive to the industry. It tries to harm competition, itâs illegal, itâs unconstitutional. You canât use lawyers to take your competitors out of the media.â
Currently, though, it doesnât look like Orca needs to worry too much about the competition. As GGV Capital managing partner Glenn Solomon told me, as the company continues to grow and bring in new customers â and learn from the data it pulls in from them â it is also able to improve its technology.
2020 was a record year for Israelâs security startup ecosystem
âBecause of the novel technology that Avi and [Orca Security co-founder and CPO] Gil [Geron] have developed â and that Orca is now based on â they see so much. Theyâre just discovering more and more ways and have more and more plans to continue to expand the value that Orca is going to provide to customers. They sit in a very good spot to be able to continue to leverage information that they have and help DevOps teams and security teams really execute on good hygiene in every imaginable way going forward. Iâm super excited about that future.â
As for this funding round, Shua noted that he found CapitalG to be a âhuge believerâ in this space and an investor that is looking to invest into the company for the long run (and not just trying to make a quick buck). The fact that CapitalG is associated with Alphabet was obviously also a draw.
âBeing associated with Alphabet, which is one of the three major cloud providers, allowed us to strengthen the relationship, which is definitely a benefit for Orca,â he said. âDuring the evaluation, they essentially put Orca in front of the security leadership at Google. Definitely, theyâve done their own very deep due diligence as part of that.â
Early Stage is the premier âhow-toâ event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. Youâll hear first-hand how some of the most successful founders and VCs build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios. Weâll cover every aspect of company-building: Fundraising, recruiting, sales, product market fit, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session also has audience participation built-in â thereâs ample time included for audience questions and discussion. Use code âTCARTICLEâ at checkout to get 20 percent off tickets right here.
Continue readingâŚ
If all of this sounds familiar, that may be because Orca only raised its $55 million Series B round in December, after it announced its $20.5 million Series A round in May. Thatâs a lot of funding rounds in a short amount of time, but something weâve been seeing more often in the last year or so.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/orca-security-avi-gil.png[/URL]
Orca Security co-founders Gil Geron (left) and Avi Shua (right). Image Credits: Orca Security
As Orca co-founder and CEO Avi Shua told me, the company is seeing impressive growth and it â and its investors â want to capitalize on this. The company ended last year beating its own forecast from a few months before, which he noted was already aggressive, by more than 50%. Its current slate of customers includes Robinhood, Databricks, Unity, Live Oak Bank, Lemonade and BeyondTrust.
âWe are growing at an unprecedented speed,â Shua said. âWe were 20-something people last year. We are now closer to a hundred and we are going to double that by the end of the year. And yes, weâre using this funding to accelerate on every front, from dramatically increasing the product organization to add more capabilities to our platform, for post-breach capabilities, for identity access management and many other areas. And, of course, to increase our go-to-market activities.â
YL Ventures sells its stake in cybersecurity unicorn Axonius for $270M
Shua argues that most current cloud security tools donât really work in this new environment. Many, because they are driven by metadata, can only detect a small fraction of the risks, and agent-based solutions may take months to deploy and still not cover a businessâ entire cloud estate. The promise of Orca Security is that it can not only cover a companyâs entire range of cloud assets but that it is also able to help security teams prioritize the risks they need to focus on. It does so by using what the company calls its âSideScanningâ technology, which allows it to map out a companyâs entire cloud environment and file systems.
âAlmost all tools are essentially just looking at discrete risk trees and not the forest. The risk is not just about how pickable the lock is, itâs also where the lock resides and whatâs inside the box. But most tools just look at the issues themselves and prioritize the most pickable lock, ignoring the business impact and exposure â and we change that.â
Itâs no secret that there isnât a lot of love lost between Orca and some of its competitors. Last year, Palo Alto Networks sent Orca Security a sternly worded letter (PDF) to stop it from comparing the two services. Shua was not amused at the time and decided to fight it. âI completely believe there is space in the markets for many vendors, and theyâve created a lot of great products. But I think the thing that simply cannot be overlooked, is a large company that simply tries to silence competition. This is something that I believe is counterproductive to the industry. It tries to harm competition, itâs illegal, itâs unconstitutional. You canât use lawyers to take your competitors out of the media.â
Currently, though, it doesnât look like Orca needs to worry too much about the competition. As GGV Capital managing partner Glenn Solomon told me, as the company continues to grow and bring in new customers â and learn from the data it pulls in from them â it is also able to improve its technology.
2020 was a record year for Israelâs security startup ecosystem
âBecause of the novel technology that Avi and [Orca Security co-founder and CPO] Gil [Geron] have developed â and that Orca is now based on â they see so much. Theyâre just discovering more and more ways and have more and more plans to continue to expand the value that Orca is going to provide to customers. They sit in a very good spot to be able to continue to leverage information that they have and help DevOps teams and security teams really execute on good hygiene in every imaginable way going forward. Iâm super excited about that future.â
As for this funding round, Shua noted that he found CapitalG to be a âhuge believerâ in this space and an investor that is looking to invest into the company for the long run (and not just trying to make a quick buck). The fact that CapitalG is associated with Alphabet was obviously also a draw.
âBeing associated with Alphabet, which is one of the three major cloud providers, allowed us to strengthen the relationship, which is definitely a benefit for Orca,â he said. âDuring the evaluation, they essentially put Orca in front of the security leadership at Google. Definitely, theyâve done their own very deep due diligence as part of that.â
Early Stage is the premier âhow-toâ event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. Youâll hear first-hand how some of the most successful founders and VCs build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios. Weâll cover every aspect of company-building: Fundraising, recruiting, sales, product market fit, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session also has audience participation built-in â thereâs ample time included for audience questions and discussion. Use code âTCARTICLEâ at checkout to get 20 percent off tickets right here.
Continue readingâŚ