Automated security validation firm Pentera, formerly called Pcysys, announced on Tuesday that it has raised USD 150 million in a Series C funding round at a valuation of USD 1 billion, making it Israel’s newest unicorn.
The funding round was led by K1 Investment Management, with participation from Evolution Equity Partners and Insight Partners. Additional investors include Canadian-Israeli VC group Awz Ventures and Blackstone.
The funding is said to make Pentera the highest valued company in its category. With more than 400 enterprise customers, the recent funding allows Pentera to scale operations across all functions and regions, and grow its headcount from 150 to 300 employees by the end of 2022, as it journeys towards an IPO.
Pentera will use the new funding to grow its global operations and product line, with the mission to empower every enterprise in every vertical to confidently reduce cyber risk and become attack-ready.
“Pentera’s exponential growth has proven that enterprises are no longer willing to compromise for assumptions and simulations, but rather demand real-world validation of their security resilience against the latest cyber attacks,” said Amitai Ratzon, the company’s CEO. “Pentera is excited for the partnership with K1 as they share our vision to achieve category leadership in security validation. We are especially grateful to our employees, customers, partners, and investors for sharing our passion for the revolution we bring to the cybersecurity world.”