Darktrace raises significant funding from investors

Cyber security firm Darktrace has managed to raise £12.27m from a number of investors, including Hoxton Ventures, Talis Capital and Invoke Capital, along with various private sources, placing the company’s value at around £54.5m.

The purpose of the funding is to allow the firm to reach into the Asia Pacific region, especially South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

As the company expands, the move into the new region will be led by Sanjay Aurora. John Muser, who founded IBM Security, currently heads New Zealand and Australia. Stanley Hsu, ex-McAfee exec, will head emerging South East Asia markets.

Nicole Eagan, CEO of Darktrace, said:

“Darktrace is growing at a phenomenal rate. It has been barely a year since we deployed to our first customer and now we have deployments at 75 companies and relationships with 50 partners across America, UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.”

She added that the firm’s number of customers has trebled during the last 12 months, and that an Asian expansion is the next logical step.

Darktrace’s customers include Drax, Virgin Trains, and BT, and the firm has been shortlisted for ‘best newcomer security company of the year’ at this year’s SC Europe awards.

Cyber security is a growing industry thanks to the wave of cyber attacks that have made their way around the world in recent years. Such attacks affect all businesses, from one-man bands to global operations. The only way that a company can make itself secure is to open up cyber security jobs to those trained in recognising and combatting attacks, minimising the risk of systems and data being compromised.