SoftBank adds $100 million to US-Israel cyber firm Cybereason
Funding and partnership with Japan’s telecom giant will help company expand its market reach, CEO says
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
US-Israeli cybersecurity firm Cybereason, which uses behavioral analytics to discover threats, has raised an additional $100 million from Japanese giant SoftBank Corp, the company said Wednesday.
SoftBank is Cybereason’s biggest investor and one of its biggest customers and distribution partners, the Boston-based startup said in a statement. Following the latest financing round, Cybereason has raised a total of $189 million in capital from SoftBank, CRV, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin since being founded in 2012, the statement said.
“We are thrilled with our incredible growth but we are never satisfied because hackers still have a big advantage over the vast majority of corporations,” said Lior Div, co-founder and CEO of Cybereason, in a statement. “This new funding allows us to increase our growth through new distribution channels and to develop new technologies.”
The “strengthened partnership” with SoftBank, which has a strong sales force and enterprise customer base in Japan and a global reach, will also enable the company to further expand the cybersecurity market, Div said. Cyberreason has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo.
The company uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to process information in real time. The software can tell companies if they are under attack, assesses its impact and move to stop the threat, according to the company’s website.
Companies like Intel, Google, IBM, Cisco Systems and Oracle are among the tech corporations that are on the hunt for cybersecurity companies as greater digitalization and inter-connectedness is leading to greater prosperity but also to greater threats. Cybersecurity firms globally raised over $3.4 billion in 2016, up from $1.4 billion in 2014, according to CB Insights, a New York-based data firm.
Malicious software dubbed Crash Override or Industroyer was reportedly responsible for a 2016 power outage in Ukraine, while in May worldwide extortionate cyberattack wreaked havoc on over 10,000 organizations and 200,000 computers in over 150 countries, highlighting once more how vulnerable companies and nations are to the growing amount of cyber threats globally. The cybersecurity market is estimated to see growth from $112 billion in 2016 to $202 billion in 2021, according to MarketsandMarkets, a data firm.
SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., provides mobile communication, fixed-line communication and Internet connection services to customers in Japan.
