Startups Venture

Shape Security Raises $26M As Cybersecurity Puts More Money In The Bank

Mountain View-based Shape Security, which helps prevent bot and fraud attacks against major companies such as Wells Fargo, has scored a $26 million round from Norwest Venture Partners. Other investors in the round included JetBlue Technology Ventures, Singtel Innov8, as well as Kleiner Perkins, and other existing investors.

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Shape Security was founded in 2011 and focuses, in particular, on detecting “imitation attacks.” It relies on artificial intelligence and a huge dataset collected across its range of customers to detect abnormalities in user activity. When an attack can’t be mitigated, Shape will notify users and companies when passwords and other login information have been compromised by an attack.

Of course, it’s relatively easy to see how this kind of technology could be applied to a company like Facebook, which recently experienced a breach that affected the accounts of more than 50 million people.

This is the fifth round of funding for the company. Most recently it raised a $40 million Series D in September 2016.1 The company has raised a known total of $132 million inclusive of this round. According to the company’s statement, the funding will be used to fuel its international expansion.

This year has been an active one for cybersecurity startups–it seems that every week there’s either a cybersecurity breach or a round for a cybersecurity company. To prove that this writer isn’t overstating, here’s a list of the top 10 U.S. companies that have raised since the beginning of 2018, ordered by total known funding. According to Crunchbase data, 60 U.S. companies in the Cybersecurity, Network Security, and Cloud Security categories have raised rounds over $5 million since the beginning of May 2018.

Organization NameCB DescriptionLast Funding TypeLast Funding AmountTotal Funding Amount
CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike is a cybersecurity technology firm pioneering cloud delivered next-generation endpoint protection and services.Series E$200M$481M
CylanceCylance is a global provider of cybersecurity products and services to solve security problems.Series E$120M$297M
FastlyFastly helps digital businesses keep pace with their customer expectations by delivering secure and scalable online experiences.Series F$40M$219M
BitSight TechnologiesBitSight Technologies is a platform that rates companies' security effectiveness on a daily basis using a data-driven, outside-in approach.Series D$60M$151M
Shape SecurityAdvanced Application Cyber-Defense. Shape protects web and mobile applications for the world's largest companies.Series E$26M$132M
SysdigThe Cloud Native Intelligence Company - a unified platform to secure, monitor, and troubleshoot your containerized environment.Series D$68.5M$121.5M
ExabeamExabeam is a big data security analytics company that is changes the way cyberattacks are detected and simplifying security operations.Series D$50M$115M
IronNet CybersecurityIronNet Cybersecurity is a network security company that bridges gap between traditional cybersecurity approaches and evolving threat.Series B$78M$110.5
ClarotyClaroty is a cybersecurity software company focused on protecting industrial control networks (ICS - A.K.A OT or Operational Technology).Series B$60M$92M
Arctic Wolf NetworksArctic Wolf provides a managed Firebreak "detection & response" security service acting as an extension of your IT Security team.Series C$45M$88.2

Illustration Credit: Li Anne Dias


  1. Crunchbase News asked the team what it is currently valued at and if this was a deliberately smaller round. We will update this post if and when the company responds.

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