- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
As our lives become increasingly connected to our smartphones, the cloud, and IoT devices, mobile security has never been a sexier topic for investment. According to Infonetics Research, the mobile device security market will likely grow to $3.4 billion by 2018.
Zimperium, which announced a $12 million Series B investment round today, will be one of many to benefit from this increased market interest. It develops enterprise security solutions for mobile devices that identify and alleviate cyber threats as well as protect phones from attacks. As more companies are aware of how their employees can expose their businesses to outside threats by accessing company information on their phones, such a solution is quite timely.
As Mark Fernandes, managing director of Sierra Ventures – an existing investor that joined this round – explained in a statement, “Zimperium’s trajectory over the past year mirrors the growth of the market and the increased awareness and need for better security on mobile devices. We have our sights set on continuing this energy and momentum as mobile attacks move from invisible to mainstream.”
Founded in 2010 by Elia Yehuda and Zuk Avraham, Zimperium has had only one other round of funding. In October 2013, they raised a Series A round of $8 million from five investors: Stephen Northcutt, David Eun, Samsung Electronics, Lazarus Investment Opportunities Fund, and Sierra Ventures. Samsung, Lazarus, and Sierra Ventures joined the Series B funding round along with investment round leader Telstra, Australia’s leading provider of mobile phones, and TOYO Corporation, a new investor and Zimperium’s distributor in Japan.
The fact they were able to raise such a large round of funding within 18 months of a nicely sized Series A round indicates Zimperium is very much on the way up.
What Zimperium has to offer
Zimperium’s Mobile Threat Defense provides 24/7, on-device protection against WiFi, mobile and host-based cyber threats. It claims to be the first company that provides a comprehensive mobile security system for both iOS and Android systems, and the fact that they identify and alleviate attacks and protect against threats seem like they are hitting most of the right buzz words for cyber security solutions. The main aspect that seems lacking is more detailed prevention, but admittedly, few solutions offer such measures.
At this point, we predict that Zimperium will more likely get bought by a larger manufacturer than strike out on its own since most early stage cyber security firms go this route, and its solution is rather specific in scope. Still, Zimperium is one of a growing number of successful cyber security startups from Israel: Mazal tov.
