In a rare big bet, Indian VC supports the local cyber security firm's $ 70 million fundraiser

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. With this fundraiser, the total financing of Safe Security has risen to $ 170 million. Summary Safe Security, a Cybersecurity firm in Palo Alto, raised $ 70 million in a series of C-round led by Avataar Venture Partners. The funding will focus on product development, as the company aims for a strong growth to a public listing in 3-4 years. Palo Alto, US-based cyber security platform Safe Security has raised $ 70 million in a series of C-rounds led by B2B Saas-focused investor avatar Venture Partners. According to TracXN data, it is one of the largest cyber security agreements led by an Indian venture capital firm. “With the new funds, we are only focused on one thing: product, product and product,” the company co-founder and CEO, business modes, told Mint in an interview. The round, which has seen other new and existing investors pin their money and belief in the business, consists only of primary investments and no secondary rates – in other words, the money went directly to the beginning and no existing shareholder sold any interest. New investors in this round include Susquhanna Asia Venture Capital, Nextequity Partners and Prosperity7 Ventures, while existing investors have repeated eight roads, John Chambers and Sorenson Capital their confidence in the company with more money. With this fundraiser, the total financing of Safe Security has risen to $ 170 million. While the valuation of the company is currently unknown, Modi said it had “more than doubled” from their last round, which was a series B of $ 50 million in 2023. Even at the time, the company did not disclose its valuation. Safe Security, incubated from IIT Bombay in 2012, began a quantifying module for cyber risks, which still brings about two -thirds of its income. The rest comes from a new module called autonomous third-party risk management, which introduced it in mid-2023. “In the next year, I expect our first and second modules to be almost equal,” Modi said, adding that a third module is being launched. The third module, according to Modi, would be an agent of the agent artificial intelligence ongoing threat management (CTEM), which constantly evaluates, assesses and reduces the risks in a digital environment of an organization. Modi said safe security for the next year will focus on this new module. “We want to take it out, but whatever we build, we want to lead in the market,” Modi said. Currently, 90% of the revenue of the business comes from the US, the United Kingdom and Australia. “These geographical areas will continue to be where we get more customers from, and we will invest in the market in these places,” he said. Safe security wants to be revealed, but after a few years of strong growth. “We need to be traded in public in three to four years, and as we approach it, we can take a strategic call or list in India or in New York,” Modi said. The company started as a service business named Lucideus, but in 2018 re -named to focus on the product and become safe. It allows for Fortune 2,000 businesses and generally is about the average $ 175,000. Some of its clients include T-Mobile, SAP, Dell, Chipotle, Canva, Chevron, HP, Google, Netflix and British Telecom. Small India Market Cybersecurity is a complicated market, with companies targeting different parts of the value chain. Some who have managed to carve Moats include Crowdstrike, Palo Alto Networks – which recently purchased Cyberark for $ 20 billion and cloud safety starter, which was recently acquired by Google for $ 32 billion. The global cyber security market is expected to grow from $ 234 billion by 2030 to $ 424 billion, according to Market firm Mordor Intelligence. Comparatively, the numbers of India are small and the expected growth is also ugly – from $ 3 billion in 2025 to $ 3.4 billion by next year, according to technology research and advisory firm Gartner. “Indian cyber security companies face challenges, such as significant price sensitivity among buyers and disqualification due to missing functionality or wrong underline price expectations,” says Apexha Kaushik, Gartner’s chief analyst. “Customers also mention underutilized existing investments and the extra complexity of new solutions as important internal barriers, making it essential for sellers to show clear value.” Jaspreet Singh, Milind Borate and Ramani Kothandaraman managed to create the only horn of the cyber security from India, US cloud protection services, Druva, which was last valued at $ 2 billion in 2021 after a series of $ 147 million. Low investor interests, even the amount of BC and PE transactions that occur in the sector, are few. Between 2020 and 2025, only 29 transactions were signed, according to the Data of Venture Intelligence, a cruel $ 195 million. In the past five years alone, the largest cyber security agreement has also involved safe security, which in 2023 raised $ 33 million of its $ 50 million from JC2 Ventures. The round was led by Sorenson Capital. Nevertheless, foreign companies such as proofpoint, which offer cybersecurity for workspaces such as Office 365 and invaders in social engineering, India as a growing market. The company sees three trends playing here: the rise of generative AI, the creation of laws such as the Personal Data Protection Act and Cyber Security Frameworks Looking for more preventative platforms by regulators such as the RBI and ultimately businesses. As a result, this year, the company erected an R&D and Threat Intelligence Center in Pune, hired 250 people and planned to rent more. “We do not regard India as a R&D and GCC geography, but as a full-fledged market,” said Sumit Dhawan, CEO of Proofpoint. Currently, most of the company’s business comes from the US, which accounts for 72% of its business, with the remaining 28% from Western Europe and Australia. Proofpoint is currently in talks with 50 Indian businesses. Dhawan said the company had already reported two of the largest BPOs in the country, but refused to name them. “In my assessment, that the Indian business is in line with Western Europe, it will take between 18-24 months,” Dhawan said. Catch all the corporate news and updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates and live business news. More Topics #VC Fund Read Next Story