CrowdStrike Inc and Cylance Inc both are cybersecurity firms founded by ex-McAfee employees. George Kurtz, chief executive of CrowdStrike, and Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance, sold a cybersecurity company they had co-founded to McAfee in 2004 for $86 million. They are both each other’s arch enemies now.
Both the firms are desperate to dominate the rising cybersecurity industry announced major fundings.
CrowdStrike, a California-based firm founded in 2011, has raised $200 million in its series E round of financing, putting the company’s valuation at more than $3 billion.
Its nemesis Cylance, founded in 2012, said it has raised $120 million also in its series E, or fifth round of funding. Cylance did not disclose its company’s valuation.
CrowdStrike’s funding was led by General Atlantic, Accel and IVP, and CapitalG, an investment arm of Google parent company Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), and March Capital Partner.
Cylance’s funding round was led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, with other unnamed investors, Cylance Previous investors include Khosla Ventures, KKR & Co LP (KKR.N), and Insight Venture Partners.
Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance said, “Cylance has proven that artificial intelligence can defend against cybersecurity problems that were previously thought impossible to prevent. With the most advanced application of AI in endpoint security, Cylance products continuously learn and improve over time, enabling customers to achieve a state of ‘perpetual prevention’ and creating a simple silence on the endpoint.”
In an interview with CNBC, George Kurtz, chief executive of CrowdStrike informed that there is a possibility that a company such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) or Google could be interested in CrowdStrike’s cloud-delivered security capability.
Source: Bizztor
