Okta Competitor Duo Security Raises $70 Million Series D & Enters The Realm Of Unicorns

Even though M&A exits are few and far between, and the pace of tech IPOs is lackluster, US investors are continuing to pour millions into late-stage deals.

Follow Crunchbase News on Twitter & Facebook

This morning, Ann Arbor, MI-based Duo Security, a firm that secures enterprise applications via two-factor authentication and other methods, raised a $70 million series D. The raise follows the company’s $30 million series C raised in 2015. Its total amount of funding, according to Crunchbase, sits at a tidy $121.5 million—solidifying its unicorn status.

Unlike some unicorns, however, an exit for Duo Security via an IPO may be in the cards. While the company has not made a public statement concerning its public ambitions, its public market analog, Okta, has performed well. As of this morning, Okta opened at $27, up from its public debut open price of $23.75. The competing identity management firm, at this time of writing, is valued at $2.6 billion according to Yahoo Finance.

Prior to going public, Okta raised nearly double the amount of Duo Security with $229 million of VC funds in the bank. It took two years from its series F raise of $75 million before the company decided to go public. Assuming Duo Security follows the path of Okta, a public offering may be a ways off if US investors continue to double down on late-stage bets.

Whether markets will remain bullish while Duo Security staves off an IPO with late-stage dealmaking remains to be seen.

From the Crunchbase Daily:

Magic Leap raises $502M

• Augmented reality startup Magic Leap announced that it has raised $502 million in a Series D round led by Temasek and joined by new and existing investors. The new round brings total funding for the Plantation, Fla.-based company to more than $1.8 billion.

JP Morgan buys WePay

• JP Morgan Chase is buying online payments provider WePay in a move to beef up its merchant services offerings. Founded in 2008, Silicon Valley-based WePay offers APIs for merchants to add payment processing. The purchase price, which was not disclosed, reportedly exceeds the $220 million valuation WePay secured in its last funding round.

Lightspeed POS secures $166M

• That wasn’t the only big news for the merchant payments space. Montreal-based Lightspeed POS, a provider of cloud-based point-of-sale software for retailers and restaurants, announced that it has raised US$166 million in a Series D funding round led by Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec.

How startup exits really pay out

• Dividing the proceeds from a startup exit is no simple task. To help illustrate how returns get distributed following a sale, Crunchbase News revisits our fictitious drone meal delivery startup, Internet of Wings, to see how founders, preferred shareholders, and common stockholders make out in an exit.