Mergers & Money: Industrial Cybersecurity Investment Makes Comeback As Infrastructure Threats Make Headlines>
Crunchbase – Chris Metinko
New York-based Claroty closed a $400 million Series E co-led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2, as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Schneider Electric. Claroty had just raised a $140 million Series D in June. âWe see a lot more excitement from the investor communityâboth VC and private equity,â said Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi. âI would say the level of excitement is 5x or 10x from what it was a year or two ago.â Clarotyâs raise is far from the only large funding round the industrial securityâalso called operational technology (OT) securityâspace has seen recently. Just late last month, Palo Alto, California-based Armis Security, an IoT and OT security provider, closed a $300 million private equity roundânine months after it raised $150 millionâat a $3.4 billion valuation. In late October, Hanover, Maryland-based Dragos raised a $200 million Series D funding at a valuation of $1.7 billion. Clarotyâs raise is far from the only large funding round the industrial securityâalso called operational technology (OT) securityâspace has seen recently. Just late last month, Palo Alto, California-based Armis Security, an IoT and OT security provider, closed a $300 million private equity roundânine months after it raised $150 millionâat a $3.4 billion valuation. In late October, Hanover, Maryland-based Dragos raised a $200 million Series D funding at a valuation of $1.7 billion. OT security space became a buzzword around 2018-19. In those two years, Armis, Claroty, Dragos and Nozomi Networks alone were able to raise nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, according to Crunchbase data. A plethora of M&A also occurred during that time frame, including ForeScout Technologies acquisition of IoT and OT security company SecurityMatters for $133 million. That deal was followed by Dragos acquiring NexDefense; a provider of industrial control systems technology; Palo Alto Networks acquiring IoT security developer ZingBox for $75 million; and Tenable buying Indegy for $78 million in cash.
Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/OT-security-industrial-ransomware-claroty-cybersecurity/?utm_source=cb_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20211210&utm_content=intro&utm_term=content&utm_source=cb_da