Just two years ago, VC funding to cybersecurity startups was on fire. Indeed, $23 billion flooded the sector, per Crunchbase. But in 2023, cybersecurity upstarts only saw a third of that — the result of the exceptional surge in 2021, bloated valuations and investors wary of market instability.
But there are always some winners during down times.
Yesterday, NinjaOne, an IT platform for endpoint management, security and visibility, announced that it raised $231.5 million in a Series C funding round led by Iconiq Growth.
The mammoth round, which was joined by Frank Slootman, the chairman and CEO of Snowflake, and Amit Agarwal, the president of Datadog, values NinjaOne at $1.9 billion, according to co-founder and CEO Sal Sferlazza.
Sferlazza says that NinjaOne wasn’t looking to fundraise, but received inbound interest from “numerous” potential investors — including Iconiq, apparently.
“Iconiq has a strong history of helping top companies like Snowflake, Datadog and CrowdStrike reach their potential,” Sferlazza told TechCrunch in an email interview. “We believed an investment from Iconiq would help ensure that NinjaOne is well-positioned for long-term success. We remain focused on scaling our business and team to continue to improve our product offerings and to support our growth globally as our customer base and product offerings mature.”
Sferlazza and NinjaOne’s president and CFO, Chris Matarese, launched Austin, Texas-based NinjaOne in 2014. Sferlazza says that he was closely involved with early development efforts, working with NinjaOne’s founding team to build endpoint management, patching and support tools.
“We recognized a massive need to help organizations manage their endpoints — a need that only grew with the pandemic wave of remote and hybrid work,” he said. “Endpoints pose a significant risk and opportunity in the post-pandemic era, and — amid the unprecedented rise of generative AI — NinjaOne is focused on automating and simplifying IT operations for our customers.”
NinjaOne’s tools, which are designed to integrate with existing IT and security platforms, run the gamut from remote device monitoring and data backup to software deployment, alerting, scripting and app automation. The company claims to be managing over seven million endpoints currently for more than 17,000 customers, including Hello Fresh, Nissan, Nvidia, Pabst Brewing Company, the State of California and the University of Oxford.
“When we founded NinjaOne, we set out to develop a wide range of products that prioritize customer success,” Sferlazza said. “That remains our number one priority today, and this focus has enabled us to grow a strong business.”
Today, NinjaOne’s war chest stands at $282.7 million as its revenue grows 70% year-over-year.
Sferlazza says that the proceeds from the latest funding round will be put toward expanding NinjaOne’s ~1,000-person team and investing in automating “the hardest parts” of IT. “S]treamlining endpoint management, bolstering security and fast-tracking new technology deployment … has allowed us to provide unparalleled customer success,” he continued.
Added Iconiq’s Roy Luo, who’s joined NinjaOne’s board of directors, in a press release: “Under Sal and Chris’s exceptional leadership, NinjaOne has demonstrated impressive product velocity, leading to increased market share, geographic expansion and customer growth. We’re thrilled to support their dynamic energy, relentless commitment to customer success, and continued growth trajectory via our global platform.”
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