In the process of completing a $100 million Series D round, US cybersecurity start-up CrowdStrike, which expanded into Asia Pacific last year, has onboarded Telstra Ventures as a new investor.
Led by existing CrowdStrike investor Accel, the Series D Round brings CrowdStrike’s total funding to $256 million, with a valuation of over $1 billion dollars, meaning it has joined the exclusive ranks of the ‘Unicorn’ club . CEO and co-founder Greg Kurtz told Dynamic Business that CrowdStrike is the only company in his industry being backed by three customers.
“This gives us valuable insight and feedback regarding the value of the Falcon platform [CrowdStrike’s cloud-based endpoint protection platform] and emerging customer needs,” he said.
Asked how CrowdStrike was able attract Telstra Ventures as an investor, Kurtz attributed it to the fact that Telstra, being one of the company’s earliest customers, “know first-hand the value and effectiveness of the Falcon platform”. He added, “Telstra recognised that we bring forward a compelling combination of strategic vision, differentiated technology, and high product efficacy – all delivering long-term business value for customers and the company itself.”
Kurtz said the Series D round will be used to accelerate CrowdStrike global growth and to meet demand for the company’s platform, which has now been deployed in 176 countries.
“This momentum is especially relevant for our business in Australia and the broader APAC market as we have a tremendous opportunity to rapidly gain market share,” he said. “Our modular approach allows organisations to replace their antivirus or augment it with endpoint detection and response and managed hunting.
“Our regional growth has been exponential since our launch in 2016. Some of the fast-yielding regional growth and momentum highlights include:
- Over 660 percent growth of total revenue, year-over-year
- 675 percent growth in total bookings of new business in FY16
“We’ve continued to make investments across the region with a focus on sales, technical support, engineering and marketing, as well as broadening CrowdStrike’s channel and partner footprint. Also, we are actively expanding our footprint in other APAC geographies, including Singapore, India, and North Asia.”
