Darktrace competitor Vectra AI hits unicorn status with $130m funding round

Vectra AI, a cyber security, threat detection and response firm has announced a $130m round of funding led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG, “Blackstone Growth”).

The investment will help fuel Vectra’s continued growth through platform innovation and expansion into new markets and geographies, solidifying its Cognito platform as a market-leading solution for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cloud security for threat detection and response.

Existing investors also participated in the funding round, increasing the company’s total funding to more than $350m at a post-money $1.2b valuation.

As recent high-profile incidents impacting SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange (Hafnium) illustrate, breaches are becoming commonplace and hard to detect because state actors and cybercriminals use multi-stage attacks that exploit supply chain weaknesses, legitimate tools, and impersonate users to steal data.

As the threat landscape continues to become more complex, security leaders must commit themselves to enhancing research and development, innovation, and strategic implementation of resource-relieving technology, such as AI. This product innovation is necessary to provide the contextual awareness security teams need to combat the expanding attack surface, created by the increased use of cloud resources and SaaS applications, mobile devices, work-from-home access and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Over the past year, we have witnessed a continuous series of the most impactful and widespread cyberattacks in history. To protect their employees and digital assets, our customers require security solutions that are smarter than today’s adversaries and provide coverage for cloud, data centers and SaaS applications” said Hitesh Sheth, president and chief executive officer at Vectra.

“As we look to the future, Blackstone’s global presence, operational resources, and in-house technology expertise will help us achieve our mission to become one of the dominant cybersecurity companies in the world.”

Viral Patel, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “Vectra has a proven ability to stop in-progress attacks in the cloud, on corporate networks, and in private data centers for some of the top organizations in the world. The company has experienced extraordinary success through its commitment to combining innovative AI technology, first-class customer service, and top talent, and Blackstone is excited to become part of the Vectra team.”