Waltham, Mass. - December 16, 2015 – Digital Guardian, a next generation data protection platform purpose built to stop data theft, today announced it has secured $66 million in additional financing. Previous investors GE Pension Trust (advised by GE Asset Management), Fairhaven Capital Partners, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge, Special Situation Funds and Brookline Venture Partners all contributed to the funding, in addition to leading new technology investors LLR Partners, Mass Mutual Ventures LLC, the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), and the Venture Capital Unit of Siemens Financial Services. Digital Guardian is also pleased to announce that in conjunction with the funding, David Stienes, partner at LLR Partners, will join the company’s Board of Directors. These investors recognize as cybersecurity priorities and market demand continue to focus on endpoint threat detection and holistic data protection, Digital Guardian is well positioned for significant growth.
This marks the largest single round of funding in company history and positions Digital Guardian to deliver on its mission of providing ubiquitous data protection, advanced threat protection, and endpoint detection and response. This investment will help accelerate revenue growth, continue product innovation and integration, and expand the company’s global footprint.
Digital Guardian has shown significant growth and momentum throughout the year. The following 2015 milestones include:
- Projected YoY growth of 50% in bookings.
- 132% YoY revenue growth in the managed services line of business.
- More than 200 new customers.
- Hired more than 100 new employees spanning the Waltham, MA headquarters, and the new Sunnyvale, CA and Salt Lake City, UT offices.
- Acquired Code Green Networks, a provider of Network and Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) software and Savant Protection, an advanced application whitelisting solution.
- Created a dedicated federal sales division and opened a Reston, VA office to accommodate the company’s rapidly growing public sector demand.
- Announced a strategic alliance with Atos, a global leader in information security services, to launch a new, cloud-based Data Loss Prevention service.
- Established and strengthened strategic technology partnerships with Splunk, Blue Coat, HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar.
- Added 50 new partners with the launch of DG Synergy, a global channel program for VARs and resellers.
Executive & Investor Perspective
“The target of both insider threats and advanced cyber attacks remains the theft of sensitive data. Even the industry leading next gen firewalls cannot detect every threat so corporations must prioritize protecting the data itself from exfiltration,” said Ken Levine, chief executive officer, Digital Guardian. “We are extremely pleased to have so many high-caliber investors who recognize that requirement and the massive market need for a next generation approach to data protection. This new round of funding accelerates Digital Guardian’s ability to deliver just that.”
“Since Ken Levine joined the company in 2014, Digital Guardian has shown significant growth and momentum,” said Anandh Hari, managing director ‒ private equity, GE Asset Management. “Being a long time investor in Digital Guardian, we have seen its evolution from a leader in intellectual property protection to a leader in next generation data protection. We have full confidence the company will continue its rapid growth, which is why we chose to participate significantly in this funding round.”
“Digital Guardian has been a strong performer within our portfolio since our first investment,” said Paul Ciriello, managing general partner, Fairhaven Capital Partners. “We value Digital Guardian’s mission of providing ubiquitous data protection and have seen it flourish under Ken’s guidance. We are pleased to support their continued growth and momentum.”
“Information security is now a board level issue for every global organization. This dynamic has created a tremendous market opportunity for a company that provides effective data protection solutions,” said David Stienes, partner, LLR Partners. “We were very impressed with Digital Guardian’s ability to deliver those solutions across endpoint, network and in the cloud and it made our decision to invest an easy one. We look forward to partnering with Ken and his management team to help drive future growth.”
“Like most companies, our lifeblood at Siemens is our intellectual property and it must be safeguarded,” said Ralf Schnell, chief executive officer, Venture Capital Unit of Siemens Financial Services. “We closely evaluated Digital Guardian’s product capabilities, strategic roadmap, and corporate vision and were very encouraged with our results. We believe our contribution will solidify Digital Guardian’s position as today’s premier provider in next generation data protection.”
“Data protection is the focal point of today’s information security strategy, which is why we invested in Digital Guardian,” said Eric Emmons, managing director MassMutual Ventures. “With the increase in high-profile breaches the need for effective and holistic data security has never been higher and no company meets that demand more efficiently than Digital Guardian."
About Digital Guardian
Digital Guardian is a next generation data protection platform purpose built to stop data theft. The Digital Guardian platform performs across the corporate network, traditional endpoints and servers, mobile devices and cloud applications to make it easier to see and stop all threats to sensitive data. For more than 10 years, it has enabled data-rich organizations to protect their most valuable assets with an on premise deployment or an outsourced managed security program (MSP). Digital Guardian’s unique data awareness and transformative visibility, combined with behavioral threat detection and response, enables you to protect data without slowing the pace of your business. To learn more please visit: https://www.digitalguardian.com/