By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – SentinelOne has raised $267 million from venture capital backers including Tiger Global and Sequoia at a valuation of more than $3 billion, almost three times what it was valued in February, the U.S. cybersecurity firm’s chief executive told Reuters in an interview.
SentinelOne protects laptops and mobile phones from security breaches by using artificial intelligence technology to identify unusual behavior in enterprise networks. Its business has seen a boost from more employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 was an accelerant in our space. We all went home with our devices and became a complete distributed workforce overnight,” SentinelOne Chief Executive Tomer Weingarten said.
The 7-year-old company is on pace to double its revenue this year as it gears up for an initial public offering as early as next year.
“We will absolutely be prepared to be a public company, probably within the next 12 months,” said Weingarten.
Insight Partners and Third Point Ventures also participated in the funding round. SentinelOne plans to use the proceeds for acquisitions and expansion in new markets including Asia, Weingarten said. About 80% of its revenue comes from the United States.
SentinelOne raised $200 million in February, when it was valued at $1.1 billion.
Weingarten said he sees the company’s biggest growth opportunity in cloud security, as its enterprise customers migrate data to the cloud to make it accessible for all the employees working from home. SentinelOne counts corporations including Sephora and JetBlue as clients.
Many of the changes in the workplace brought about by the pandemic are here to stay even when the outbreak subsides, favoring SentinelOne’s business, Weingarten said.
“I don’t think what happened this year is reversible. What happened with COVID-19 is unlocking another stage in the evolution of work,” said Weingarten.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
