Cyber-Security Startup Ensilo Announces $10m Funding For Preventing Threat Actors From Extracting Key Data In Real-Time

PRESS RELEASE

[TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – June 16^th, 2015] – Cyber-security startup enSiloannounced today that it has raised $10 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with additional investment from existing backer Carmel Ventures.

Founded in 2014, enSilo emerged from stealth mode in March, 2015. The new investment will be used to expand the company’s global operations, in particular in the North America market, and to open US offices on the West Coast.

Given the ever-increasing scope and tenacity of targeted cyber-attacks on businesses, organizations and governments, enSilo diverges from the widely-accepted notion that external threat actors can be prevented from infiltrating networks. The company instead assumes that organizations have already been compromisedand focuses on preventing the exfiltration of critical data – precisely the most critical and costly aspect of cyber-attacks. With enSilo’s offering against targeted attacks, employees are still able to continue working, even when the system is infected.

“In the same way chronically-ill patients are provided treatment to increase quality of life and longevity, organizations must assume that they are working with a persistently compromised network and learn how to maintain business-as-usual despite the contaminated environment,” said Roy Katmor, CEO & co-founder of enSilo. “Time and time again organizations’ networks are infiltrated. We seek to shift the model from trying to block inbound threats to concretely stopping threat actors already on the inside from inflicting damage and stealing valuable data.”

When enSilo’s solution detects a data exfiltration attempt, it sends a single alert to the customer notifying them of the situation and blocks malicious outbound communications. By generating only one alert per active threat, enSilo eliminates the paralyzing scourge of alarms faced by information-security teams.

David Gussarsky, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, who has joined enSilo’s board of directors following the investment said, “We are excited to invest in a company whose innovative solution gives corporations and organizations the best of both worlds. First, the assurance that their data is fully protected and second, the knowledge that even if a device becomes infected, the company can continue working while the threat is resolved.”

The company is managed by cyber-security industry veterans including CEO Roy Katmor, who previously led Akamai’s security strategy, as well as CTO Udi Yavo, who spearheaded the direction of the cyber-security unit at the National Electronic Warfare Research & Simulation Center of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and served as its CTO.

Ronen Nir, a General Partner at Carmel Ventures who led the Seed round and sits on enSilo’s board of directors, added: “At Carmel Ventures, we are excited to continue our long term partnership with the exceptionally talented founding team of enSilo that is already helping businesses protect their assets with its innovative data-exfiltration prevention solution. That shows just how eager the market is for this new approach.”

enSilo’s research team recently discovered a vulnerability in all versions of Windows – from Windows XP to the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview – which could be exploited by malicious actors to bypass all the security measures in Windows by modifying only a single bit. The security hole was reported and Microsoft released a security patch in February 2015. 

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About enSilo

enSilo offers a real-time targeted attack exfiltration prevention platform. enSilo was able to develop a platform which accurately distinguishes legitimate connections from malicious ones, already on connection establishment. Our solution provides virtual patching against advanced targeted threats enabling employees to keep working as usual while a device compromise is resolved. The company is headed by security veterans from leading private and public sector companies, including Imperva, Akamai, EMC and Rafael. enSilo is financially-backed by Lightspeed and Carmel Ventures. https://www.ensilo.com

About Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management and investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, India, Israel and China with Lightspeed China Partners. Over the past two decades, Lightspeed partners have backed more than 200 consumer, enterprise and cleantech companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Flixster, Fusion-io, Informatica, Kosmix, LivingSocial, Lucky Pai, Nicira, Playdom, Pliant Technology, Provigent, Riverbed Technology, Solazyme, TutorVista, Virsa Systems, Waveset, and XtremIO. http://lsvp.com

About Carmel Ventures

Founded in 2000, Carmel Ventures is managing over $800M across four funds. As Israel’s top tier VC firm, we invest in Israeli or Israeli related early stage companies and build global category leaders. Carmel invests across a number of key market segments including: software, new enterprise infrastructure, big data, digital media, consumer applications and semiconductors. Our team approaches the investment as a proactive, hands-on endeavor. Carmel Ventures typically leads or co-leads investments and take an active role on the Board of Directors while keeping a low ratio of companies per partner. With strong M&A and IPO experience, the Carmel team has backed a disproportional share of Israel’s category leaders that generate over $50M in annual revenues, including: Outbrain, ironSource, Payoneer, and more. http://www.viola-group.com/carmelventures

Contact Information:

Leora Katz

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