Arctic Wolf Secures $200M Series E Round to Fundamentally Change Security Operations

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Today is an important milestone in the history of Arctic Wolf as we have secured a $200M Series E round of funding at a valuation of $1.3 billion. 

This new investment into our business not only validates our strategy and leadership position in the security operations market, it is a testament to the hard work and loyalty we have received from our employees, partners, and customers. 

When we started the company in 2012, we set out not just to make cybersecurity better but to fundamentally change it. We recognized that cybercriminals were innovating faster than the industry, so a profoundly new approach was needed. The answer to better cybersecurity was not buying and deploying an endless procession of new security tools and silver bullets but developing a complete program that can adapt to the ever-changing security landscape.  

To put in plainly — we realized that, for most organizations, cybersecurity wasn’t a tools problem; it was an operations problem.  

In our early days, the idea of delivering security technology as a service was new conceptThis is because there wasn’t a platform that could ingest data from anywhere, and certainly not a cloud-native one. Another issue was the challenge of expertise. The cybersecurity skills shortage is nothing new, and it has always left organizations struggling to hire security talent. And suppose a company chose to outsource its security? In that case, they’d get a call center experience instead of working with someone who knew them and the environment they were trying to protect.  

These two issues drove us to create the two cornerstones of Arctic Wolf; the Arctic Wolf Platform and the Arctic Wolf Concierge Security Team.  

The Arctic Wolf Platform is a vendor-agnostic platform that can collect signals from any security tool to drive faster threat detection and eliminate alert fatigue. At the same time, the Concierge Security Team is a dedicated group of individuals provided to each customer that offers proactive security guidance. 

When combined, these two Arctic Wolf cornerstones offer companies what acronyms like EDR, MSSP, and SIEMs have all failed to do — provide them security operations that are effective, affordable, and obtainable. 

When we first came to market in 2014, the term managed detection and response (MDR) didn’t exist yetYet, today it is the most crucial security operations capability a company can haveGartner predicts 50% of all organizations will use MDR by 2025, and this new round of funding cements our leadership position in this space as the first and only MDR vendor with a valuation over a billion dollars. 

And even this year, as the pandemic has created economic and operational headwinds for many industries and organizations, demand for MDR and our other our security operations solutions has resulted in some incredible corporate milestones and year-over-year performance metrics for us, including: 

  • 106% growth in subscription revenue 

  • 180% growth in the number of customers in the enterprise segment  

  • 301% growth in the number of customers using multiple solutions  

  • 282% growth in the number of channel partners, driven by the company’s transition to a 100% channel sales model 

  • 270% growth in the number of security events (now approaching 1 trillion per week) processed by the Arctic Wolf Platform 

As part of this funding round, the investment community we spoke to recognized the market demand driving our success. Lance Matthews, Principal at DTCP, cited the struggles organizations have with their security operations as one reason they chose to invest in us. 

We have seen businesses struggle with maintaining their cybersecurity posture as remote work has increased the number of potential attack vectors. Arctic Wolf’s platform stands out in the market as a full-stack solution that combines automation, integrations, and a personalized approach helping customers’ security operations. 

So, what’s next for Arctic Wolf with this new round of fundingNew security operations solutions, new markets, and, most importantly, continuing on our journey of helping organizations end cyber risk. 

The fact of the matter is, despite Arctic Wolf helping to protect thousands of organizations, the cybersecurity industry continues to have an effectiveness problem. Just like in 2012, when we first identified the issues plaguing the industry, IT and security leaders continue to invest in new tools, and we continue to see a steady stream of data breaches in the headlines. 

To end cyber risk once and for all, organizations need to embrace an operational approach to security, and doing so only requires three simple things: 

  • Centralizing all of their data and telemetry into a cloud-native platform 

  • Enabling 24×7 monitoring, threat detection, and response 

  • Having on-demand access to security expertise  

For some organizations with ample discipline, maturity, and financial resources, implementing these three pillars is an achievable in-house goal, but those companies are few and far between.  

The SANS Institute estimates that only about 50% of organizations have a security operations center, and until that changes, attackers are going to have a target-rich environment, and we’re going to continue seeing more security failures in the headlines. 

We believe that Arctic Wolf is perfectly poised to help all organizations, no matter size or location, on their security journey, and with our new round of funding, we believe we will be able to do what we set out to do eight years ago – fundamentally change the cybersecurity industry. 

Are you ready to fundamentally change your security operations?

 

Brian NeSmith

Brian NeSmith

Brian NeSmith is an internationally recognized business leader, bringing more than 30 years of cybersecurity leadership, including extensive experience driving revenue growth and scaling organizations globally. His unique track record in leading both startup and public companies has enabled him to pioneer innovative solutions in the security market and lead companies throughout all phrases of growth—establishing new market categories and raising the bar for enterprise solutions.
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