Cyolo Joins Cybersecurity Funding Streak With $21M

The cybersecurity funding streak continues.

Israel-based Cyolo this week joined its peers (although not necessarily competitors) AttackIQ, Lightspin and Deep Instinct in securing private investment. Cyolo, which specializes in open-source zero-trust technology, landed $21 million in Series A funding.

Series A represents a startup’s first venture capital round. And according to Fundz, the average deal by July 10, 2021, now comes in at around $22.9 million. Cyolo’s $21 million hovers close to that number, indicating significant investor excitement and interest in its business model. (Its overall funding totals $25.2 million.) To be sure, Glilot Capital Partners, which led the Cyolo funding, said as much.

Glilot Capital Partners’ Kobi Samboursky

“We have been tracking Cyolo and other zero-trust technologies for quite some time, and Cyolo’s product execution is the best we’ve seen,” said Kobi Samboursky, co-founder and managing partner of Glilot Capital Partners. “Cyolo has grown exponentially and its road map and vision for the future of secure connectivity aligns with market needs. We are excited to support the company as it enters its next phase of growth.”

For Cyolo, much of that growth will come through a focus on the channel. The company sells through managed security service providers.

Cyolo’s Almog Apirion

“Channel partnerships are most effective if the sales teams can create a personal connection,” Almog Apirion, Cyolo’s co-founder and CEO, told Channel Futures. “The funding will allow us to expand regionally, allowing for that personal connection and the proper support that is required for an effective go-to-market strategy.”

What Is “Zero Trust” Anyway?

S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Garrett Bekker

There’s a lot of talk in the channel about what exactly “zero trust” means. Frankly, it does not just encompass technology. Sure, platforms make up a big part of zero trust, but as S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Garrett Bekker recently told Channel Futures, “zero trust at its core is a way of approaching security where access to resources is predicated on your identity, or the identity of a thing or system, or app, than on what network or network segment you are on. In other words, access is based more on who than where. It also means a larger role for the principle of least privilege — [it] only grants users access to what they explicitly need to do their jobs, and nothing more.”

Cyolo helps end users address that very gap, looking at access more than the network.

“The timing is right to expand into new markets, and this investment enables us to further execute our vision of transforming secure connectivity from network-based to identity-based, in order to provide organizations with a solution for their current and future needs,” Apirion said. “This round will allow us to accelerate growth and R&D efforts, and help new customers easily navigate the transition to zero trust.”

To that end, Cyolo’s software works by continuously detecting and authorizing devices, users and identities in a network. After that, it provides them access to organizational resources, apps, data, software and more. Of interest is that Cyolo’s technology covers both IT and operations. Therefore, it cannot see customer data. That gives organizations assurance that their confidential information will not be compromised.

Apirion said Cyolo takes a different approach to zero trust than other vendors.

“Most solutions are focused on the obvious use cases and are not flexible enough to meet the demands of a complex enterprise,” he said. “Cyolo’s strategy from the beginning was to create an open architecture that allows us to adapt to any environment and meet any connectivity requirement that customers need.”

Why Cyolo’s Funding Matters

Overall, the need for zero-trust security has reached new heights. Breaches, hacks, ransomware and other cyberattacks just keep mounting. COVID-19 is to blame, as are popular events, remote work, and the increasing value of data within many corporations and governments.

For Apirion, Cyolo’s new funding round is just as important for channel partners as it is for  end users.“We understand that the relationship with the channel is just as important as our relationship with customers.” he said. “We are an extension of each other’s teams and we need to make sure that we’re able to support each other in order to be successful.”

Cyolo also secured some money from National Grid Partners, Merlin Ventures, Flint

Capital, Global Founders Capital and Differential Ventures. The company’s Series A money contributes to the macro private equity funding streak. By June, private equity firms had struck 13 deals in the United States alone, surpassing 2020’s total of 11, according to PitchBook.

Cyolo was founded in 2019 by former commanders from the Israeli Navy Cyber Unit, Apirion told VentureBeat.