A local cybersecurity company expects to hire more than 100 people and expand its reach after raising $100 million.
ThreatLocker Inc. raised the money in a Series C fundraising round led by New York-based private equity firm General Atlantic Service Co. LP, co-founder and CEO Danny Jenkins told Orlando Inno. As a result, the Maitland-based firm will add employees, expand its Central Florida office footprint and enhance its product so it’s accessible to more businesses, Jenkins said.
Founded in 2017, the company provides server and endpoint security for 23,000 clients. The company has grown quickly since 2019, when it employed about six people. Between 2019 and the Series C round, ThreatLocker raised at least $24.4 million and grew its headcount to 140 employees.
Next, the firm aims to employ 300 people by the end of the year, Jenkins said. Currently, there are 21 open local jobs listed on ThreatLocker’s website, ranging from cybersecurity compliance manager to email marketing specialist.
As ThreatLocker’s team grows, so will its Maitland headquarters. The company’s office footprint will expand from 24,000 square feet to 41,000 in the next few weeks, Jenkins said. The new space still is being built out.
Of course, some of the funds will go toward beefing up ThreatLocker’s suite of cybersecurity tools. ThreatLocker’s focus has been primarily on enterprise-level clients, but Jenkins said that will expand. “We’re looking to enhance the product, making the product easier to use for all businesses, not just big corporate enterprises.”
ThreatLocker’s rapid growth and increasing stature in the cybersecurity industry drew a call from General Atlantic, a 42-year-old growth equity firm with $84 billion in assets under management.
ThreatLocker’s “zero trust” model takes the guesswork out of detecting cyber threats, General Atlantic Operating Partner Gary Reiner said in a prepared statement. “As companies of all sizes increasingly focus on filling in gaps in their security stacks, zero trust is becoming a necessity — and we view ThreatLocker as an emerging leader in this paradigm shift.”
In addition to General Atlantic, ThreatLocker’s existing investors, Boston-based Elephant VC and Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Arthur Ventures, participated in the fundraising round.
A record $21.8 billion was invested into cybersecurity startups around the world last year, according to Crunchbase data. This growing investment in the cyber sector comes as the number of reported attacks increases.
In fact, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its Internet Crime Report stated there were more cyber complaints in 2021, amounting to $6.9 billion in reported losses, than in any of the previous four years.
Meanwhile, another Central Florida cybersecurity company announced a blockbuster investment deal the same day as ThreatLocker. Orlando-based Fortress Information Security LLC raised $125 million from funds managed by the asset management division at New York-based banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).
Those funds will help Fortress, which protects critical infrastructure such as utilities, expand its work with U.S. military customers, Peter Kassabov, co-founder and executive chairman, previously told Orlando Inno. The company also expects to double its 200-person team by the end of the year.
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