Illumio, a company that protects organizations’ digital assets, announced it has raised an additional $225 million in its latest (Series F)funding round. The cybersecurity firm is now valued at $2.75 billion.
The investment round was led by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm. Franklin Templeton, Hamilton Lane, and Blue Owl Capital also participated in the offering.
According to Reuters, venture capital investments in cybersecurity solutions have grown over the past year as organizations adapt to remote work. “The volume of attacks and resources and efforts going into security attacks on at-home employees has increased significantly,” said Greg Poirer of Salesforce partner company CloudKettle.
Illumio was founded in 2013 with an emphasis on implanting zero trust security measures for better data security. This includes real-time threat detection and automated mitigation and containment of cyberthreats.
“We are witnessing the most catastrophic breaches in history on a regular basis, despite security spending that is expected to top $150 billion this year,” an Illumio news release proclaimed in reporting the funding news. “Colonial Pipeline, JBS, Microsoft Exchange and daily incidents of smaller ransomware payouts prove that legacy security does not provide adequate protection, and the entire security model is in question.”
“A Zero Trust strategy is the new model, designed to assume breach at all times,” Illumio’s news release continued. “While no single product or platform equals a complete Zero Trust approach, segmentation is a core pillar of every Zero Trust strategy.”
The Forrester Zero Trust rankings rate Illumio as one of the top providers in 2020 in the security space, along with Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and Akami. Illumio closed the most recent fiscal quarter with its strongest showing to date, achieving annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth of more than 100% and announcing service agreements with the US government, including the Air Force Association and Homeland Security.
Three of Illumio’s biggest clients include Salesforce, the Bank of England, and Morgan Stanley — each of which has seen its share of cybersecurity issues become public in recent years.
Data Breaches, Class Action Suits, and Fines
Salesforce has been dealing with a series of legal actions over data privacy. The company settled a class-action suit over data breaches for $400,000 this year. A European nonprofit group, The Privacy Collective, has filed suit against Salesforce and Oracle over a breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). That suit is asking for $10 billion in damages.
Morgan Stanley’s been in the news for other reasons lately. In April, Reuters reported that Morgan Stanley had lost nearly $1 billion in the collapse of family office Archegos Capital Management. Then, there are the claims of power struggles and internal politics with Thane Stenner at the firm along with yet another $60 million fine for mishandling the decommissioning of two data centers and potentially exposing customer information.
In 2020, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay a $5 million penalty to settle with the SEC. The SEC had claimed Morgan Stanley misled clients about fee programs regarding transaction costs and trade-execution services. Another class-action suit alleges the company failed to safeguard personally identifiable information in an admitted data breach.
The Bank of England has had its security issues as well. Hedge funds gained unauthorized access to press briefings. While denying that the breach provided sensitive market information, the Bank admitted its security procedures had failed.
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