EiQ Raises Funds for Development of Mid-Market Hybrid Security Solution

Startup EiQ Networks is making inroads in its effort to deliver cloud security for midmarket customers with a round of new funding to help the company grow its business and customer base.

The Boston-based company has raised $9.55 million in Series C funding led by Arrowroot Capital, a growth equity firm based in Santa Monica, Calif., EiQ said in a press release. Both EiQ founders, Vijay Basani and Jay Reddy, also participated in the round to promote their company’s interests.

EiQ plans to use the funds to speed up efforts to win new customers by investing in sales and marketing initiatives, as well as support the company’s core plan to deliver SaaS security services to the midmarket, where companies often do not have the staff or funds to develop strong security solutions, EiQ Chairman, president and CEO Basani said in the release.

“EiQ is pleased to secure growth financing from Arrowroot, which recognizes the important mission we’re on,” he said. “More and more, mid-market customers who are understaffed, under budgeted, and overwhelmed with ever-increasing cybersecurity and compliance challenges are finding that EiQ’s hybrid SaaS security services that combine people, process, and technology are a welcome change from going it alone.”

EiQ’s designed its SOCVue subscription SaaS service to protect IT systems against security threats in a number of ways, including by assessing vulnerabilities and monitoring and detecting abnormal behavior and situations in network activity, the company said. The solution also analyzes what happens when incidents occur to strengthen future security postures.

SOCVue combines people, process, and technology in an information security program for the mid market that includes proactive and continuous security controls auditing; co-managed SIEM and log management; continuous vulnerability management; and compliance reporting, among other services, the company said.

EiQ said the funding is the icing on the cake of a strong 2015, which isn’t surprising given the amount of industry interest in security innovations and new firms in the space, which garnered considerable venture funding last year.

In 2015, EiQ saw its SOCVue security services adopted by dozens of new customers and also experience 178 percent year-over-year growth, the company said. It also signed on nearly a dozen new partners.

The new financing now raises EiQ’s funding amount to date to $30 million; in 2009, the company raised $10 million in a round led by Venrock Associates. As part of the new round of funding, Matthew Safaii, founder and managing partner of Arrowroot Capital, is also joining EiQ’s Board of Directors.

Safaii said Arrowroot chose to support EiQ because of the company’s potential in the IT security space and the differentiation it provides in the market with its position as a mid-market vendor.

“Cybersecurity is just as important for mid-market organizations as it is for the Fortune 500, and EiQ is uniquely positioned to deliver affordable, proactive security monitoring and vulnerability management services through its hybrid SaaS model,” he said in the press release.