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Proceeds from the Series B round, which was led by Insight
Venture Partners and existing investor Accel, will be used to
fund product development, international expansion and marketing,
said Chief Executive Ron Gula.
"It's a big raise. We realize that," Gula said. "We are
investing across the board."
Tenable executives declined to discuss the valuation of the
company that sells software that businesses and governments use
to monitor networks for weaknesses and cyber threats. Rivals
include Rapid7 Inc <RPD.O> and Qualys Inc <QLYS.O>.
The previous record for a cyber funding round was $225 million
raised in 2013 by AirWatch, which was later acquired by VMware
Inc <VMW.N>, according to CB Insights. Insight Venture Partners
and Accel were also involved in that deal.
The deal, which Tenable expects to close in December, comes at
the end of a year in which cyber security companies have taken
advantage of investor enthusiasm for their sector.
Analysts expect sales of cyber firms to outpace the broader
high-tech sector as businesses and governments invest in new
technologies to protect against increasingly devious hackers.
Venture funding in cyber firms is poised to beat last year's
total of $2.5 billion, which was up from $1.7 billion in 2013,
according to a Reuters analysis of data from CB Insights and
Bain Capital Ventures.
"The cyber security market has expanded in a way that quite
frankly very few of us anticipated," said Ping Li, a general
partner with Accel and member of Tenable's board.
Accel invested $50 million in Tenable in a 2012 Series A round.
(Additional reporting by Heather Somerville and Kshitiz Goliya;
Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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