CrowdStrike, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based cybersecurity firm, has raised $200 million in new funding at a valuation exceeding $3 billion by private investors, the company said Tuesday.
CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 by executives formerly at the helm of cybersecurity firm McAfee. The firm sells “endpoint” security software, a crowded segment of cybersecurity market that aims to protect computers, laptops, servers, and other devices from hacker threats.
CrowdStrike thrust itself into the national spotlight during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election season after it investigated a monumental hack of the Democratic National Committee. The firm was the first to publicly blame agents of Russia for the data breach.
A so-called unicorn startup, CrowdStrike attained that coveted, cryptozoological title following its last funding round in May 2017. At that time, the firm hit a private valuation of more than $1 billion following a $100 million cash infusion led by Accel, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
The latest round of funding was also led by Accel, as well as two new investors, IVP and General Atlantic. Other participants in the round included existing investors, venture capital firm March Capital and Alphabet growth equity arm CapitalG.
CrowdStrike is often put forward by industry insiders as a contender for an eventual initial public offering. Other cybersecurity businesses that recently pursued IPOs include rivals Carbon Black and Zscaler.
On a call with Coins2Day on Tuesday morning, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s CEO and cofounder, declined to comment on the timing of a possible IPO. He said, however, with no small touch of pride, “I think we’d be a very attractive public company.”
In an interview with CNBC last month, Kurtz suggested that CrowdStrike might also be an attractive acquisition target for a cloud-computing giant, such as Amazon or Google. CrowdStrike distinguished itself early on with a cloud-first approach to cybersecurity, and Kurtz often likes to compare his business philosophy to that of Marc Benioff’s Salesforce in taking on Oracle’s Seibel in the world of customer relationship management software.
On the call with Coins2Day, Kurtz declined to reveal specific sales figures for CrowdStrike, but he said that the company’s annual recurring revenue had grown 140% year-over-year. His firm also recently said in recent weeks that it would begin to offer certain customers a warranty covering up to $1 million in breach-related expenses, such as fees for lawyers and crisis communications.
The Information, a tech news outlet, first reported details about CrowdStrike’s exploration of a venture capital infusion on Monday.
Other cybersecurity businesses expected to pursue a public market debut in the months to come include Tanium and Tenable, both of which shared exclusive details about their financials with Coins2Day in recent months.
