Axonius, one of the world's leading companies in enterprise asset management, understands and monitors the digital assets and infrastructure that make up an organization's network, but as the company grows, it's expanding its business by adding 2 more companies. Raised $1 billion in funding. The company has been around for about five years, has about 500 large companies as customers, and is on track to generate more than $100 million in ARR.
The investment is co-led by Lightspeed and Accel and is an extension of Axonius' existing Series E. Axonius is a $200 million investment solely led by Accel, which has been raised for nearly two years now. As an extension round, the valuation remains unchanged at $2.6 billion. (Prior to that, the company raised $100 million in 2021 at a valuation of $1.2 billion).
Neither Axonius nor they have commented on why they chose to do this additional equity financing as an extension rather than a new Series F, but at this point, especially if the round is slow, It's not uncommon to see even growth-stage investments raising money at more conservative valuations.
When asked about the decision, CEO and founder Dean Sisman said, “We didn't feel the need to increase our valuation from the previous round.”
“When approaching a funding round, I never optimize for valuation. We optimize for what's best for the company over the long term, and given the size and scale of the problem, we're very “We think it's a long-term strategy. It's an addressable market,” he said.
Despite business tightening in IT budgets and technology in general, the addressable market Sisman is referring to has only grown over the years.
One of the most important aspects of a strong cybersecurity strategy today is attack surface awareness. Understanding what assets, services, and interactions exist within your network is key to preventing malicious attackers from entering your network.
In today's corporate world, this is easier said than done. The rise of cloud services, containerization, big data analytics, microservices, a plethora of connected devices and work locations (some with no human involvement at all), and the variety of legacy operations that run alongside them all. , are just some of the developments. It defines the way we work today. All of this together creates a complex and usually non-static “area” that represents a myriad of ways a malicious hacker can penetrate and cause damage to your network.
Axonius is one of a group of specialized companies building platforms to manage this. Axonius provides what Sysman calls a “as close to real-time snapshot as possible” of what the network looks like at any given point in time. “Close” is the real and valid word here. Axonius covers everything on-premises, in the cloud, or anywhere else in your network, but some products and services don't provide data on a real-time basis. “We rely heavily on the data sources we get,” he said.
From there, it provides tools to detect when a snapshot has changed and suggests what action to take as a result. Some companies aim to provide this information for better data management, regulatory compliance, or tracking of software spending. For example, Xensam focuses primarily on software assets rather than endpoints. Vertice for Expense Management — Axonius’ primary focus is cybersecurity.
Companies that have signed deals so far include Schneider Electric, News Corp and Anheuser-Busch InBev, and New York-based Axonius plans to use this investment to continue strengthening its platform. as well as to continue expanding into new markets.
Axel and Lightspeed declined to be interviewed for this article, but Lightspeed provided a single quote to answer various questions we had.
“We have been a long-time partner of Axonius and want to further focus on our best-performing companies. Axonius clearly fits the bill. The company's growth trajectory speaks for itself. One of the fastest cyber companies in history to reach $100 million in ARR, it has reached 1,000 platform integrations and has evolved over the years from a single product asset management company to a broad management platform that manages the entire enterprise. digital footprint, including assets, software, and SaaS,” said Lightspeed Partner Arsham Memarzadeh. “They are well on their way to becoming a household name for cyber or IT buyers.”