Aporeto Announces $20M Series B

Aporeto, leader in Identity-Powered Security, today announced $20M in Series B funding to support strong customer growth and market expansion plans for its identity-based segmentation solution for cloud applications and networks. The investment, led by Comcast Ventures and a number of strategic and financial investors, will enable Aporeto to capitalize on a significant momentum in securing both cloud and hybrid environments through its infrastructure-agnostic approach to Zero Trust Security. Existing investors Wing VC and Norwest Venture Partners also took part in the round

Security breaches in the news on a daily basis accentuate the struggle of organizations to keep critical applications and data secure, particularly in the midst of their rapid shift to the public cloud. Increasing use of cloud-based native technologies such as containers, Kubernets, service mesh and serverless adds even more complexity to the challenge of securing legacy and hybrid private/public cloud environments. These strains highlight network security deficiencies that rely on IP addresses, static access control lists, and threat signatures that do not scale along with DevOps, modern, automated infrastructure, and advanced threats.

“The market recognizes that cloud adoption compromises the effectiveness of last generation network security tools designed for static data centers and IP addresses,” said Jason Schmitt, CEO of Aporeto. “Automation, flexibility and scale of cloud environments require identity-based security that can be dynamically adapted and absolutely secure. We’re really excited about the incredible quality of new investors joining Aporeto and the tremendous market validation and geographic expansion they bring to our team. “That’s right.

Aporeto Identity-Powered Security creates an identity-based segmentation approach that effectively implements Zero Trust security across any infrastructure at all levels. Aporeto bridges the DevOps-driven divide that is growing between network, infrastructure and security teams by offering a security automation platform that operates within the context of applications and is independent of the drag of heterogeneous infrastructure. Aporeto provides the ultimate segmentation for modern applications based on cryptographic workload identity rather than on IP addresses:

Identity-based micro-segmentation for large-scale networks and hybrid cloud
Security Automation and Zero Trust Policy Orchestration for DevOps Environments across a variety of enforcement sites.
Segmentation of users to authorize and audit privileged systems and service-to-service access, such as SSH
Cloud-Native Network Visibility and Access Control for Containers, Kubernets, Service Mesh and Serverless
New Investors New Investors

In addition to Comcast Ventures, Aporeto’s investment also includes new investors across other key industry verticals and regions that are key to Aporeto’s value proposition and expansion plans. National Grid Partners (NGP) is the first Silicon Valley-based venture capital and innovation company in the utility industry. NGP is investing in energy potential with a provocative vision to define a smarter and more renewable energy future. Telia Ventures is the venture investment arm of Telia Company, New Generation Telco, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

“We are excited to work with the Aporeto team as they rapidly expand their unique approach to cloud applications and network security,” said David Zilberman, Managing Director of Comcast Ventures, who will join the Aporeto Board of Directors as part of this investment. “Aporeto is taking a unique approach to securing dynamic cloud workloads on a scale and disrupting network security for incumbents who are still trying to tailor static, appliance-based solutions to a cloud environment where they don’t fit. “That’s right.

Momentum of the market

Aporeto has gained momentum throughout 2018 through a combination of significant industry recognition and customer traction. Most significantly, Aporeto has been named Cool Vendor in Cloud Security1 by Gartner, Inc. , where the company was cited as having an “easy-to-use tool for default denial of segmentation in container-based environments” that information security and application security architects should consider. Aporeto’s strong year ended with record revenue growth and customer gains across a number of key verticals, including financial services, healthcare, insurance, high-tech and government services.

“Companies of all types and sizes are moving rapidly to distributed and cloud-based applications,” said Andre Turenne, Director, National Grid Partners. “The National Grid is no exception and ensuring that these distributed workloads are properly secured is a top priority. We see Aporeto’s identity-based security approach, which blocks the application while eliminating costly and vulnerable traditional network security, as the next paradigm of security solutions. “That’s right.

About Aporetto

Aporeto is a leader in Identity-Powered Security for cloud, container, and microservice applications, enabling Zero Trust distributed security for apps, networks, and users. The Aporeto platform protects cloud applications and networks from attack and prevents lateral movement by authenticating, authorizing and encrypting all communications with a cryptographic identity assigned to each workload. A uniform, distributed security policy is implemented by workload independent of network or infrastructure configuration, enabling automated security orchestration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. See www for more information. The Poreto Come or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

1 Inc. Gartner , “Cool Vendors in Cloud Security” by Jay Heiser, Neil MacDonald, Lawrence Orans, Steve Riley, 7 May 2018.

Supporting Quotas

“We are very pleased to be part of taking Aporeto to the next level and to introduce it to the European market as well. Telia Ventures is actively looking to invest in cyber security to ultimately help digitization as businesses move forward. Aporeto’s native cloud-based security vision and solutions fit our thesis very well. “-Heikki Makijarvi, CEO of Telia Ventures

“Cloud rise means the end of network security as we know it. Network constructs like ports and addresses can no longer anchor a dynamic cloud security position and must be replaced by an application-centric, identity-powered approach. All companies adopting the cloud will eventually need to move in this direction. “-Peter Wagner, founding partner of Wing Venture Capital

“Too much security today relies on recycling old ideas, such as miniaturized firewalls, IP address identity, and new signature-based detection spins. These approaches are not sufficient to secure today’s dynamic and complex hybrid environments, which combine many legacy assets with newer cloud-based development. Aporeto’s unique approach to Cryptographic Identity-based applications and networks has created a truly uniform security model that encompasses all types of infrastructure, making it easier to manage the transition to the cloud. Norwest is pleased to continue investing in Aporeto and to see the team expand with other major investors committed to its Zero Trust Security vision across any infrastructure at any scale. “-Matth Howard, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners

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