Cybersecurity Gets Another Unicorn With Duo’s $70 Million Raise

Cybersecurity software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Duo Security landed $70 million in fresh venture capital funding, according to news from TechCrunch this week, making the firm the latest unicorn in the market.

Funding from Meritech Capital Partners and Lead Edge Capital places Duo Security’s valuation at $1.17 billion, reports on Wednesday (Oct. 18) said, and the Series D venture capital round brings the total raised by the company to $119 million. Index Ventures and Workday are among the new investors that participated in the most recent round.

With offices in both the U.S. and the U.K., Duo Security employs more than 500, reports said, and more than 10,000 businesses use its services to ward off cybercrime.

“Cybersecurity is the biggest geopolitical issue of our time,” the SaaS startup’s CEO Dug Song said, according to TechCrunch. “When Duo started, our mission was to democratize security. Now we’re securing democracy. Duo has only scratched the surface of addressing the need to deliver simple and effective security globally. There are many more organizations that Duo could help protect, and in the journey ahead, we hope to reach them all.”

The CEO also told the publication that the latest funding round will be used for innovation and fueling new partnerships for the company.

In 2015, Duo Security released a solution to help businesses safeguard devices used by employees for both personal and professional use, part of a way to address the cybersecurity concerns around the Bring Your Own Device movement. The solution enables IT professionals to manage all devices in a company’s network from a single portal.

Duo Security is part of a growing number of cybercrime-fighting startups landing big funding rounds as of late. Earlier this year, CrowdStrike closed a $100 million Series D round that similarly pulled the firm into unicorn status. That investment was led by Accel with participation from CapitalG, Warburg Pincus, March Capital Partners and Telstra. In August, cybersecurity company BlueteamGlobal raised $125 million.