Bayshore Networks Raises $6.6M from Trident Capital Cybersecurity and Current Angel Investors

PRESS RELEASE

BETHESDA, MD, MAY 10, 2016 – Bayshore Networks, the cybersecurity leader for the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), today announced that it has raised $6.6 million in Series A funding from Trident Capital Cybersecurity and its existing angel investors.  Alberto Yépez, managing director of Trident Capital Cybersecurity, will join the company’s board.  Will Lin, vice president of Trident Capital Cybersecurity, will be a board observer. 

Trident Capital Cybersecurity watched Bayshore Networks’s growth success for nearly two years as it achieved its key milestones. “We chose to lead the Series A because Bayshore has been recognized as an innovator and early leader in an emerging cybersecurity segment that is largely untapped to date,” said Alberto Yépez, managing director of Trident Capital Cybersecurity. “We are impressed with the company’s cutting-edge cloud-based technology, the team’s ability to grow its customer base across the Fortune 100, and its track record of developing strategic alliances with world-class players.”

Targeting Cybersecurity for the Industrial Internet

While the Internet provides significant business advantages to industrial enterprises, it leaves their operations exposed and vulnerable to the hazards of the Internet.  Bayshore was founded in 2012 to help protect industrial enterprises against Internet-based cyber attacks, which are becoming increasingly common.  

The term “Industrial Internet” refers to the convergence of networked applications and sensors with industrial machinery and processes. The Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) represents new business opportunities for enterprises in industries such as manufacturing, critical infrastructure, smart cities and connected cars.  

Bayshore’s cloud-based software, called the Bayshore IT/OT Gateway, provides IT departments with visibility into OT (Operational Technology) infrastructure, networks, applications, machines and workers.  These OT networks are undergoing transformation and require services traditionally available for IT networks, such as secure remote access and analytics. Bayshore provides immediate value by preventing OT process disruptions and enhancing operational efficiency and business continuity.  

The software is distinguished by extremely granular inspection and filtering of network flows – all the way down to machine sensor values – and the ability to provide security enforcement and application segmentation and isolation via flexible, rapidly deployed policies.  Bayshore’s policy engine is capable of supporting common industrial protocols and quickly adapting to new and proprietary protocols.

These capabilities are built from the ground up for Industrial Internet and provide Bayshore’s F-100 customers with future-proof, cloud-based solutions that are complementary to legacy hardware-based industrial firewalls. Designed for IT perimeter security, firewalls look for IP addresses and ports, which means they block attacks according to standard Internet parameters.  Because industrial cyber attacks are typically based on granular machine instructions that alter sensor values, Bayshore’s unique technology is well positioned to detect industrial attacks that are often overlooked by other security technologies.

If the Industrial Internet is adequately protected, General Electric estimates it has the potential to add up to $15 trillion in global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the next 20 years.  IDC believes that revenues for IoT security products, which totaled $9.4 billion worldwide in 2015, will exceed $20 billion by 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 16.5 percent. 

“Bayshore intends to capitalize on the rapid expansion of the market by continuing to focus on solving our customers’ problems,” said Mike Dager, the CEO of Bayshore.  “That means providing protection of their industrial operations and workers. Because our software supports all popular industrial protocols and easily adapts to proprietary protocols, we will continue to target customers across a broad spectrum of industrial verticals.”

“The protection of industrial control systems from cyber attacks may be one of the most urgent areas of cyber security in the world today," said Dr. Edward G. Amoroso, former SVP and CSO of AT&T, and now CEO of TAG Cyber LLC. "Bayshore Networks offers a range of effective and scalable software and virtual solutions to accomplish this important objective."

Bayshore will use some of its venture capital proceeds to complete the relocation of its headquarters from New York City to Bethesda, Maryland, to access the rich cybersecurity expertise in metropolitan Washington, D.C. It will also invest the capital in R&D and in the expansion of its engineering and sales teams.

About Bayshore Networks, Inc.

Bayshore Networks®, named a Gartner Cool Vendor and SINET 16 Innovator, is the cybersecurity leader for the industrial Internet of Things. The Company’s award-winning, patented Bayshore IT/OT Gateway™ software unlocks the power of the Industrial Internet by enabling industrial applications and data. It provides Fortune 1000s with unprecedented visibility into their Operational Technologies, safely and securely protecting industrial applications, networks, machines and workers. The software platform deploys from the cloud, as a virtual machine, or on-prem as a hardware appliance. Bayshore has strategic alliances with leading technology companies including AT&T, BAE Systems, Cisco Systems, and VMware. For more information, visit http://www.bayshorenetworks.com.

About Trident Capital Cybersecurity

Trident Capital Cybersecurity is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies leveraging emerging technologies in cybersecurity. The firm is a spinout of Trident Capital, which in 1998 became one of the pioneers of cybersecurity venture capital investing... Managing Directors Alberto Yépez, Don Dixon and Sean Cunningham jointly lead the cybersecurity investment team and sit on the boards of Airtight Networks, AlienVault, Blue Cat, Hytrust, IronNet Cybersecurity, Mocana, and Qualys. Renowned as the venture capital firm with the most valuable network of cybersecurity relationships, Trident Capital Cybersecurity also relies on input from a 40–person Cybersecurity Advisory Council, consisting of industry CEOs, customers and former top-level government leaders. Bayshore Networks is the firm’s third investment. Earlier investments were made in IronNet Cybersecurity and Survela. For more information, visit http://www.tridentcybersecurity.com. 

[1] “Pushing the Boundaries of Minds and Machines,” Peter C. Evans and Marco Annunziata, General Electric, November 2012.

[2] “Worldwide Internet of Things Security Products Forecast 2016-2020: Vendors Identify Practical Solutions,” doc #US40829715, January 2016.