Vectra Secures $100M With AI-Driven Tech

A seven-year-old cloud security company that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to find network intrusions has raised $100 million in a Series E funding round led by TCV, according to a report.

Khosla Ventures and Accel also took part in the round. The total raised by the company so far is in the neighborhood of $200 million.

Vectra CEO Hitesh Sheth said there are two types of intrusion detections: One is an endpoint detection and the other is network detection and response, which is the type that Vectra handles. Adding AI to the mix provides an additional layer of protection, Sheth said, which sets his company apart and also attracts investors.

The company was started in 2012 and has 240 employees. Sheth said he plans to use the capital to double that number within a year to 18 months. As more companies migrate data to the cloud, many want reliable security for their data, which Sheth said Vectra can provide.

“One of the keys to our success has been applying AI to network traffic, the networking side of NDR, to look for the signal in the noise. And we can do this across the entire infrastructure, from the data center to the cloud all the way into end user traffic, including IoT,” he said.

Tim McAdam, who is part of the investor firm TCV, said AI is the real clincher when it comes to investing in the technology, and that even though AI is used in many different applications, Vectra is the real deal. “All of them have decided to standardize on the Vectra Cognito because to a person, they spoke of the efficacy and the reduction of their threat vectors as a result of standardizing on Vectra,” he said.