Cybereason has raised $275 million in Series F funding. The crossover financing was led by private equity and venture capital firm Liberty Strategic Capital.
Cybereason's goal: Further accelerate the cybersecurity company's XDR, EDR and endpoint protection software business -- which increasingly involves MSSP and MSP partnerships.
Additional investors in the round include Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC, and Softbank Vision Fund 2. This round follows $389 million in prior funding from Softbank Group, CRV, Spark Capital and Lockheed Martin.
Cybereason Partner Program, IPO Speculation, Rivals
The new financing surfaces one day after Cybereason unveiled The Cyber Defenders League -- a global partner program for MSSPs, resellers, and more.
Also, Cybereason in February 2021 hired several executives as part of its efforts to grow its channel partnerships. These hires included:
- Abigail Maines as VP of commercial and channel sales for North America
- Stephan Tallent as VP of MSSPs for North America
- Ahmed Saleh as VP of incident response services
The big question: Will Cybereason pursue a potential IPO (initial public offering) on the near-term horizon? Speculation from 2019 suggested a potential Cybereason IPO in 2021 or so -- though we haven't heard updates on that chatter.
The latest Cybereason funding round surfaces after key rivals CrowdStrike ($CRWD) and SentinelOne ($S) launched successful IPOs in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Those companies are now valued at $58.6 billion and $12.8 billion, respectively.
Cybereason Financing: Executive Perspectives
Privately held Cybereason has not disclosed its valuation, but the company says it has experienced "impressive growth" over the past year.
In a prepared statement about the funding, Secretary Mnuchin, founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, said:
“Cybereason is fast becoming the global leader in cyber defense technology, and we could not be more pleased to make this extraordinary innovator the first addition to Liberty Strategic Capital’s portfolio. Cybereason has established itself as a visionary in prevention, detection and response, and Liberty Strategic Capital is excited to partner with the Cybereason team in their cutting-edge work to defend critical information networks, businesses, and governments around the world against the growing danger of cyber attacks. We are confident in Cybereason’s ability to deliver a superior product to customers and provide best-in-class critical infrastructure defense.”
Added Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of Cybereason:
“Over the past year, we’ve experienced hypergrowth across the globe as defenders recognize that ending advanced attacks isn’t possible using solutions that rely on meaningless alerts and human intervention. Existing – even ‘next-gen’ – solutions are fundamentally flawed, creating the dynamic we have today where the defender is constantly struggling to keep pace with attackers. Unlike our prolific alert-generating competitors, Cybereason takes an approach that enables defenders to end malicious operations instantly, resulting in the most comprehensive prevention, detection and response solution on the market. This is how we are returning the high ground to the defenders – and we are just getting started.”
Multiple financial and legal advisors assisted the financing round. For instance:
- J.P. Morgan is serving as exclusive placement agent to Cybereason;
- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP serving as legal counsel to Cybereason; and
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is serving as legal counsel to Liberty.
