Virtru Closes $37.5 Million Series B Investment After $29 Million Series A in 2016

Virtru Corporation, a provider of end-to-end data protection and data privacy solutions to more than 8,000 organizations, announced the initial closing of a $37.5 million Series B preferred stock financing.

ICONIQ Capital, LLC led the round and was joined by returning investors Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Samsung NEXT, Blue Delta Capital Partners, Thyra Global, and Soros Capital.

This investment comes in the wake of Virtru’s growth over the last year, including adding 3,000 new customers and tripling revenue.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to expand company’s email and file data protection solutions, scale operations, expand internationally, and establish the Trusted Data Format as the world’s common open standard to protect data.     
   
Virtru’s data privacy solutions allow enterprises and government agencies to secure and share their sensitive data while maintaining control over who can access their content. Where traditional approaches provide porous walls around company systems or checkbox solutions that are too difficult for practical use, Virtru provides an easy-to-use solution that protects any type of data, wherever it’s shared. 

“The stakes have never been higher for data privacy and Virtru has built an unmatched data protection platform, serving a multi-billion-dollar enterprise market,” said Will Griffith, Partner, ICONIQ Capital. “In speaking with many of their customers, it’s clear that Virtru addresses an urgent need where many others have failed – namely an easy-to-use way to protect corporate data wherever it is and wherever it goes. We are excited to partner with this talented team as they continue to grow the business.“

Regulated content, IP, personal information governed by GDPR, and other sensitive information are the lifeblood of the enterprise, and that vulnerable data must be shared inside and outside of the organization. Control of sensitive data is particularly challenging for companies moving to public clouds. Yet firewalls and other network security solutions cannot reliably protect enterprise data. The Virtru platform was built to address the most vexing issues facing enterprises and governments – ensuring that valuable information is protected and access is controlled, while permitting easy sharing with authorized partners, customers, and suppliers.   

Virtru’s initial focus has been on protecting sensitive information shared by email, a historically difficult problem where legacy approaches fail in both ensuring protection and in user experience. The company is now moving to protect content shared using other common enterprise workflows including file stores, collaboration platforms, and structured data systems.  
 
“The endless wave of massive breaches is exhibit A that many security market vendors are selling snake oil,” said John Ackerly, CEO, Virtru. “It’s either checkbox compliance, designed for a bygone era when all your information could be safely locked down inside your firewall, or it’s too difficult for practical use. We’ve taken a different approach – we protect corporate data wherever it travels. And we make it easy to use and manage.”

He added: “Our partnership with ICONIQ and ongoing support from existing investors opens new horizons for Virtru, allowing us to make critical investments in innovation and scale, with the aim of helping many more customers around the world. We’re grateful for our investors’ support.”

In connection with ICONIQ’s investment, Griffith has joined Virtru’s board of directors. Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal counsel to Virtru in connection with the financing.