After closing a $22 million series A funding round led by an Austin-based venture capital firm, Israel-based endpoint security startup Portnox said Jan. 27 that it is putting its global headquarters in Austin.
The move comes as Austin's Elsewhere Partners becomes the company's lead investor, and as it appoints Denny LeCompte, who is an Elsewhere Partners operating advisor, as CEO. LeCompte has also held executive roles at security firms AlienVault, NetIQ and SolarWinds. Meanwhile, Portnox co-founder Ofer Amitai is transitioning to chief technology officer, and will lead the company's Israel-based engineering and product teams.
Portnox, which operates legally as Access Layers Ltd., has developed a cloud-native network access control platform to beef up companies' cybersecurity monitoring systems.
The headquarters, a 2,700-square-foot space at 5301 Southwest Pwky. in South Austin, will initially house operations, sales, marketing and customer success teams. A company spokesperson said 11 of the company's 52 employees are based in Austin. Portnox plans to double its headcount by the end of 2022.
As part of the deal, John Thornton and Nick Stoffregen of Elsewhere Partners will join the Portnox board, as well as Idera Inc. CEO Randy Jacops.
“By listening to its customers and building on the early success of its on-premises solutions, Portnox anticipated the market need for an end-to-end cloud offering while other NAC players threw all their weight behind on-premises solutions that can’t meet mid-market needs or ignored the calls for more comprehensive cloud solutions,” Thornton said in a statement. “We are at the cusp of the next era of cyber security, with the promise of an incessant barrage of more sophisticated threats across a more diverse landscape of devices and ‘offices' than ever before."
