Exabeam announces Series F funding growth round, along with appointment of new CEO and President, Michael DeCesare

Exabeam, the security analytics and automation company, has announced a US$ 200 million Series F growth round, at a valuation of US$ 2.4 billion. The round is led by the Owl Rock division of Blue Owl Capital and supported by existing investors, Acrew Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.

Exabeam also welcomes cyber security industry veteran, Michael DeCesare as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President. The company’s Co-Founder and first CEO, Nir Polak, will continue on as an active member of the executive team and remain at the company. Additionally, Nir Polak will assume the role of Chairman of the Board.

New executive appointments

Michael DeCesare has more than 25 years of experience in leading high-growth security companies. He was President of McAfee, and most recently, he was CEO and President of ForeScout Technologies, which went public in 2017 under his leadership.

In addition, Exabeam Chief Product Officer, Adam Geller will now lead both the product and engineering organisations, ensuring even tighter integration and alignment, as the company innovates and invests in creating the number one trusted cloud SecOps platform on the market. Geller was previously a Senior Vice President of Cloud Security at Palo Alto Networks, before joining Exabeam in 2020.

UEBA expert

Exabeam defined the user entity and behaviour analytics (UEBA) security technology category"

Michael DeCesare said, “Exabeam defined the user entity and behaviour analytics (UEBA) security technology category and is a leader in the security information and event management (SIEM) market. Innovation is in our DNA.”

He adds, “We are reimagining the threat detection, investigation and response (TDIR) problem with an open extended detection and response (XDR), offering automation and use case-specific content so security analysts can quickly defend against threats, which is a true game changer for security teams.”

Series F funding round

Michael DeCesare further stated, “Nir has built an incredibly robust, diverse and inclusive culture at Exabeam, and I am committed to helping it flourish. I’m thrilled to join Nir, Adam and the whole leadership team, to help drive the company through its next phase of growth.”

Nir Polak stated, “This funding round gives us the operating capital required to continue executing on our vision to deliver the number one trusted cloud SecOps platform on the market.”

Outcome-based security approach

Nir adds, “It gives us the opportunity to triple down on our R&D efforts and continue engineering the most advanced UEBA, XDR and SIEM cloud security products available today. Now with Mike at the helm and Adam’s leadership over product and engineering, we have assembled a seasoned executive team ready to scale and take our business to the next level.”

Exabeam’s outcome-based approach to security around external threats, compromised insiders and malicious insiders is perfectly suited to support organisations as they manage exponential amounts of data and return to the post-pandemic workplace in a variety of hybrid scenarios.

Cloud-based analytics and automation

The company recently launched its new Fusion product line with Fusion XDR and Fusion SIEM

The company recently launched its new Fusion product line with Fusion XDR and Fusion SIEM. With 70 percent of new business in 2020 delivered through Exabeam cloud-based analytics and automation, adding XDR puts a new name on what Exabeam already provides to customers.

Over the last 12 months, Exabeam has also made significant investments in the Exabeam Partner Programme, which now includes more than 400 resellers, distributor, system integrator, MSSP, MDR and consulting partners globally.

Technology integration with IT and security companies

In addition, driven by its open XDR approach for security teams, the company now has over 500 technology integrations with major IT and security companies, including cloud network, data lake and end-point vendors, such as CrowdStrike, Okta and Snowflake.

“Exabeam is poised to be the next-gen leader in the cloud security analytics, XDR and SIEM markets. We led this round of funding to provide the company with the resources necessary to support its sustainable, long-term growth and value creation,” said Pravin Vazirani, Managing Director and Co-Head of Tech Investing, Blue Owl Capital.

Cyber security, a mission-critical function

Pravin Vazirani adds, “In today’s operating environment, cyber security is increasingly recognised as a mission-critical function across industries, and we’re proud to partner with Michael, Nir and the Exabeam team as they seize the opportunity ahead of them, continue to innovate and enable their clients to stay at the forefront in terms of identifying and addressing threats across their technology platforms.”

According to Mordor Intelligence, the cloud security software market is valued at US$ 29.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a market value of US$ 37.37 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 5.2 percent over the forecast period (2021-2026). Gartner predicts that the SIEM market, worldwide, is poised to grow from US$ 4 billion to US$ 6.3 billion, during the 2020-2024 periods, progressing at a CAGR of 11.86 percent, during the forecast period.

IT and cyber security trends

Exabeam has been able to quickly pivot to digital, remote and hybrid IT work strategies"

“Exabeam is in the middle of a large IT and cyber security trend, where organisations must capture more data across a growing distributed IT infrastructure, while ensuring the security and integrity of the platforms upon which their businesses operate,” said Ravi Mhatre, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Exabeam Board Member.

Ravi Mhatre adds, “To the credit of its leadership, Exabeam has been able to quickly pivot to digital, remote and hybrid IT work strategies, driving new sales, while making existing customers even more successful. We look forward to the company’s continued growth.”

Cloud adoption by large enterprises

“Cloud adoption by large enterprises has been pulled forward, and Exabeam is in an elite group of companies that successfully weathered market uncertainties through 2020 as it accelerated its move to a cloud-first company,” said Theresia Gouw, Founding Partner at Acrew Capital and Exabeam Board Member.

Theresia Gouw adds, “Exabeam is a leading security player in a high-demand, high-stakes market where business and IT executives must be able to see all of their data, no matter its location, to make smart security, infrastructure and business decisions. The proven leadership at Exabeam continues to execute exceedingly well, and last year, the company was the fastest private security management company to hit US$ 100 million in ARR.”

“This funding and valuation marks a new chapter in Exabeam’s journey, as it pushes full speed ahead on breaking out of the security management space and becoming a 100 percent fully ‘for-the-cloud’ SecOps innovator,” said Matthew Howard, General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, adding “We are confident the company will continue to deliver additional value to security operation centres (SOCs), helping them become even more efficient and effective at protecting their organisations.”