SenseOn raises $20m in Series A led by Eight Roads Ventures

27 Sep 2021

Image: © KanawatTH/Stock.adobe.com

The London-based security start-up has also taken on AppDynamics alumnus Jeremy Duggan as a member of its board.

UK cybersecurity start-up SenseOn has closed a $20m Series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures.

Existing investors MMC Ventures, Crane Venture Partners and Winton Ventures also returned to increase their stakes.

SenseOn provides clients with a cloud-based, AI-powered platform for threat detection, investigation and response.

The London-based start-up was founded in 2017 by David Atkinson, who previously spent 15 years in the British armed forces as a cybersecurity officer. The company claims to have grown by more than 350pc last year.

SenseOn was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers for 2021.

Atkinson, the company’s CEO, commented: “We chose to partner with Eight Roads Ventures because of their ability to support SenseOn’s vision, thanks to their collaborative partnership style, their strong knowledge of the cyber industry and their global footprint.

“We are facing a new reality whereby attackers are advancing more quickly than legacy approaches can keep up with, but hybrid and multi-cloud environments are far more complex than we yet know how to defend.”

He continued: “The daily headlines show legacy approaches don’t work and if we don’t do something courageous now as a security community or we aren’t going to stand a chance in the future.”

Alongside the investment, SenseOn announced that it is adding Jeremy Duggan to its board. Duggan has been involved with three unicorn start-ups in the SaaS field to date: AppDynamics, Bladelogic and Ascential. AppDynamics was sold to Cisco in 2017 for $3.7bn.

“After meeting Dave and learning about his personal story and the incredible business he is building I was thrilled to become a board member and play a part in this special company,” said Duggan.

“The product is genuinely market-leading, the market is huge, and the people in the team are hugely passionate and intelligent. SenseOn has the potential to become another outstanding UK tech unicorn and it’s incredibly exciting to be a part of that.”

Jack Kennedy is a freelance journalist based in Dublin

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