Boston-Based cybersecurity software startup Snyk announced another mega-round on September 9, 2021. The late-stage startup is trying to help developers deliver more secure code, raised $300 million in fresh funds and added $ 230 million in secondary funding.
Israeli-founded cybersecurity firm added a total of $ 530 million at a whopping $8.5 billion valuation, up from $4.7 billion in March. The secondary funding is to help employees and early investors cash in some of their stock options.
Cybersecurity has been one of the most significant investment areas by venture capitalists since the pandemic as companies ramped up their digital footprint, including e-commerce and remote work.
The round was co-led by Sands Capital Ventures and Tiger Global. It follows a March funding round, where the company raised $175 million in new capital. The company was valued at $4.7 billion just six months ago and just over $1 billion at the beginning of 2020 when it was declared a unicorn.
The new funds will be used for product development and to improve its technology, the company said.
Snyk focuses on fixing security issues
Founded in 2015 by Guy Podjarny, Assaf Hefetz, and Danny Grander, Snyk helps companies and developers find vulnerabilities in their open-source code and stay secure.
Major clients include Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Adobe. Developers use Snyk’s technology to add security components to new software products.
Snyk’s software as a service (SaaS) platform helps developers identify vulnerabilities and license violations in their open-source codebases, containers, and Kubernetes applications.
By connecting their code repository, be it GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, Snyk customers gain access to a giant vulnerability database, enabling Snyk to describe the problem and point to where the flaw is the code lies, and even suggest a fix.
The issue
Most modern software relies on open-source components, saving businesses the considerable resources involved in building and maintaining everything in-house. But reports suggest 84 percent of the commercial codebases contain at least one open-source vulnerability, leaving the software supply chain vulnerable to myriad external threats.
Thus, the business of securing open-source software is growing. Earlier this year, Snyk’s rival WhiteSource raised $75 million to bolster its open-source security management and compliance platform, which companies like Microsoft and IBM use.
