Vectra AI raises $130M at a $1.2B valuation

Vectra AI, a company that applies artificial intelligence (AI) that detects and responds to hidden cyber attackers inside cloud, data center, and enterprise networks, has announced it has raised $130 million in a funding round that values the company at $1.2 billion.

The California-based company has said the investment will continue to help their growth and expansion into new markets and countries. It will also ‘solidifying its Cognito platform as a market-leading solution for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cloud security for threat detection and response.’

The funding is being led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG), with unnamed existing investors participating, increasing the company’s total funding to more than $350 million.

Security threats 

Throughout the past year with more people working from home, security threats have become a more prominent issue. 

According to Vectra AI this product provides the contextual awareness security teams need to combat the expanding attack surface, created by the increased use of cloud resources and SaaS applications, mobile devices, work-from-home access and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Over the past year, we have witnessed a continuous series of the most impactful and widespread cyberattacks in history. To protect their employees and digital assets, our customers require security solutions that are smarter than today’s adversaries and provide coverage for cloud, data centers, and SaaS applications” said Hitesh Sheth, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Vectra.

“As we look to the future, Blackstone’s global presence, operational resources, and in-house technology expertise will help us achieve our mission to become one of the dominant cybersecurity companies in the world.”

Customer demand for threat detection and response in the private and public clouds are major forces driving the company’s global growth. Vectra’s AI-driven Cognito platform detects attacker behaviors and protects its users from being compromised, regardless of location. The platform works across the complex enterprise IT infrastructure to continuously learn and deploys advanced AI, threat intelligence feeds, and known attack profiles to identify breaches as they are being executed. This approach provides security teams with time to respond to threats and seamlessly integrates with existing security tools to automatically remediate threats.

“As organizations around the world increasingly focus on cybersecurity, we believe Vectra is providing a critical solution that levels the playing field against the sophisticated actors that generate the most damaging cyber threats,” said James Socas, a Managing Director at Blackstone.