Israeli cybersecurity company Pentera (formerly Pcysys) has announced the completion of a $150 million financing round, at a company valuation of $1 billion. The round was led by K1 Investment Management, with the participation of existing investors Insight Partners, AWZ Ventures and Blackstone and new investor Evolution Equity Partners. This brings to $190 million, the total amount raised by Pentera.
Half of the money raised is for new investment funds for the company and half will buy shares of existing shareholders, divided equally between, according to CEO Amitai Ratzon, employees, managers and founders.
The company was founded in 2015 by CTO Arik Liberzon and Arik Faingold who is no longer active in the company. Ratzon joined the company as CEO in January 2018. The company currently has 160 employees including 90 in Israel, up from 60 employees when it raised $25 million in September 2020, at a valuation of $200 million.
Ratzon said that Pentera is aiming for an IPO in 2024.
Pentera has developed a platform that tests an organization's entire IT infrastructure, reveals risk and creates a surgical remediation plan that automatically validates security for continued resilience.
The company does not provide full financial figures but Ratzon said, "In the fourth quarter alone we increased annual recurring revenue by $7 million and we are a company that enjoys 95% gross profit because we have no support functions. The customer can install the product within 20 minutes and work independently within a few days.
Pentera's customers include fashion company GAP, video games company EA, Blackstone (which has also invested in Pentera) and in Israel the Israel Electric Corp. and supermarket chain Shufersal.
Pentera has three Israeli rivals in Israel in the security testing and validation ssector: XM Cyber, which was sold to Schwarz Group for $700 million in November, Cymulate, which raised $45 million last May and Safebreach, which raised $53.5 million in November.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 11, 2022.
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