Area 1 Security Nabs $25M, Furthers Focus on Anti- Phishing & BEC

California-headquartered cloud email security provider will use the $25 million growth funding to expand R&D initiatives and turbocharge its service delivery under the newly appointed CEO.

Area 1 Security, a California-based vendor of cloud email securityOpens a new window has raised $25 million from new and existing investors. ForgePoint Capital led the growth funding, with existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Icon Ventures and Top Tier Capital participating.

This investment came in the form of growth funding, which follows the company’s $32 million Series C back in October 2018Opens a new window . The startup said the funding will be used to advance research and development (R&D) activities.

2019 saw a startling 250% increaseOpens a new window in phishingOpens a new window emails being sent. This is only expected to increase with increase in attack surface area due to COVID-19 imposedOpens a new window remote work as well as large-scale digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by companies. A Verizon study reported that over 75% breachesOpens a new window in 2019 were driven by phishing. What’s worse is that 73% of employeesOpens a new window do not have cybersecurity guidance when working remotely.

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Alberto Yepez, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ForgePoint Capital, and a leading cybersecurity investor said, “While email continues to be the predominant business collaboration application, innovation in Email Security has stagnated. We’ve seen damage from email security failures climb to outrageous heights over the past few years, with little indication of slowing down.”

Area 1 Security claims they blocked millions of phishing attempts carried out through business email compromiseOpens a new window , that traditional email security tools missed and averted $273 million in active financial cyber fraud losses.

Area 1 Security has a unique performance-based business model wherein the company charges only they catch said phishes. It is essentially a Pay-Per-PhishOpens a new window solution without any payment commitment unless the company detects and neutralizes phishing attempts.

Area 1 Security will also use the new funding to focus on aggressive expansion initiatives of a new multi-tier channel strategy created as a part of their new go-to-market activities.

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As a part of the growth funding, Yepez will take his seat at Area 1 Security’s board.

With the new funding, the company is also charting its new path under Patrick SweeneyOpens a new window as the new Area 1 CEO. Sweeney is an experienced cybersecurity executive with prior leadership experience at Talari Networks, Dell, and SonicWALL. He said, “By focusing on the earliest stages of an attack combined with the industry’s leading small pattern analytics technology, Area 1 is uniquely able to bring preemption to email security. We stop phishing campaigns prior to their inflicting damage.”

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