Cybersecurity startup Deep Instinct raises $100 million in funding round
Tel Aviv company, which uses machine learning to predict, identify and prevent hacker attacks, will use funds to fuel growth; has raised $200 million to date
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Deep Instinct, an Israeli cybersecurity company that uses machine learning to predict, identify, and prevent cyberattacks, said Thursday it has raised $100 million in Series D funding.
The funding round was led by funds and accounts managed by US investment firm BlackRock, including participation from US-based Untitled Investments; an investment by US entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki; and existing investors including Millennium Technology Value Partners, Unbound, and Coatue Management, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
On Thursday, the Calcalist financial website reported that Defense Minister Benny Gantz has a stake in the startup worth at least NIS 4.5 million ($1.4 million), citing a filing of assets to regulators signed last month.
The new capital raised by the startup in its D round doubles the funds raised from investors to date, bringing the total funding to $200 million, the company said in a statement. The money raised will fuel the company’s growth plans for 2021 and beyond, the statement said.
The Tel Aviv-based startup is one of the first to use deep learning algorithms to predict cyberthreats and advanced attacks. Deep learning is inspired by the brain’s ability to learn. Once a brain learns to identify an object, its identification becomes second nature. Similarly, Deep Instinct’s Artificial Neural Network technology mimics the brain to recognize in real time any type of cybersecurity threat, such as malware, malicious code ransomware and APT attacks, and prevent it, according to the firm.
“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 increase our best-in-class deep learning research and product development groups,” said Guy Caspi, CEO of Deep Instinct. “These groups will focus on further developing the company’s unique deep learning platform beyond endpoint into cloud, network, and storage to meet the accelerating needs of our customers in the face of more sophisticated threats and breaches.”
Deep Instinct has customers across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with enterprise customers tripling in the last year, including strategic contracts with multiple Global 2000 companies, the world’s largest, in the first quarter of the year, the statement said.
