SA国际传媒

has closed a $12.5 million strategic funding round from , and The Syndicate Group (TSG) to help push its cloud-native network security platform further into the market.

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The Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity company had started a conversation in the second half of last year to raise a Series B, however shifted strategies after hiring as its new CEO in the fourth quarter. Murray said the company instead eyed a strategic investment to help grow it and prove a product/market fit.

鈥淲e now have two strategic partners to help create a foundation for our go-to-market strategy,鈥� said Murray, who served as CEO of from 2013 until it was bought by in January 2020 for an undisclosed price.

Securing the cloud

Valtix鈥檚 platform helps companies secure their application environments in the three large public clouds 鈥� , and . The company helps protect customers from the new vectors they face in public cloud environments, much like incumbent firewall providers like , and did for on-premise environments.

, CEO of The Syndicate Group, said while the company is still young — founded in 2018 鈥� he has been excited by the number of companies that have shown interest in becoming partners with Valtix.

鈥淰altix is on the early end of the spectrum for us to get involved with a company,鈥� he said 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 a very exciting time for us to get involved.鈥�

The company has about two dozen partners now, but has interest from about three times that amount of companies wanting to partner, Cardenas added.

Growth

Although Valtix just started to sell its cloud network platform in the first half of last year, it has dozens of customers, said Murray, who believes the company鈥檚 market will be between $3 billion and $4 billion by 2025.

After the company grows its channel partners and proves its go-to-market strategy, a Series B could occur in the 12- to 18-month range, Murray said. The 40-person company now has raised $26.5 million since being founded. Previous investors include , and .

While the company is not focused on an exit, Murray said he sees the company as a disruptive force in security, just as FireEye and Palo Alto Networks were when they entered the market. Despite competing on some levels with those cybersecurity titans, Murray said Valtix also could look to partner with incumbents, as it did by taking a strategic investment from Cisco鈥檚 investing arm.

Murray added that when he joined the company he was looking for something early-stage that he could help mold, and believes Valtix can be formed into a billion-dollar cybersecurity company.

鈥淚f our goal was to sell to a strong incumbent I would not have taken the role,鈥� he said.

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