SUMMARY
Sharad Sanghi, the CEO of managed hosting and cloud services provider Netmagic, invested in this round in a personal capacity
Sequretek plans to use the funds to set up offices in North America
The startup is also a week away from announcing its enterprise-grade endpoint security solution — EDPR
Mumbai-based cybersecurity startup Sequretek has raised $3.7 Mn (INR 27 Cr) in a bridge funding round led by existing investor Unicorn India Ventures, a Mumbai-based venture capital fund.
Gujarat-based venture capital firm GVFL (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Limited) and Sharad Sanghi, the CEO of Mumbai-based managed hosting and cloud services provider Netmagic, also participated in the round as co-investors.
According to the startup, Sanghi made the investment in a personal capacity.
Sequretek, founded in 2013 by Anand Naik and Pankit Desai, provides products and solutions in the area of information security. It offers both a subscription-based model and a perpetual license model to its customers, who can choose whichever suits them.
The platform, which is gearing up for its international debut in North America, plans to use the freshly raised funds to set up offices there, hire local talent, and sign on some clients in industry segments spanning the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, technology, retail, and online brands.
“Our enterprise client base is expanding with newer segments such as manufacturing, pharma, services and retail coming on board whilst maintaining a strong traction in the financial sector. These freshly infused funds will help Sequretek scale up faster in India as well as internationally too,” Desai said.
The startup is also looking forward to announcing the launch of its enterprise-grade endpoint security solution — EDPR — in a week’s time.
Sequretek claimed that it has more than 50 enterprise clients in BFSI, media, technology, pharma, and manufacturing.
In 2017, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round of funding from GVFL and Unicorn India Ventures.
According to a report by Niti Aayog, cybersecurity has been defined as “protecting our cyberspace from attack, damage, misuse and economic espionage.”
In the wake of rising data breaches, cybersecurity is gaining increased importance across the world, and especially in India, which has the second-largest number of Internet users in the world at over 460 Mn, second only to China.
Recently, in June, Bengaluru-based cybersecurity services company Network Intelligence raised $4.87 Mn (INR 33 Cr) from private equity firm Helix Investments.
The cybersecurity space has major players such as Fortinet, FireEye, Symantec, Lucideus, AppsPicket, and others. In October 2017, cybersecurity company Securonix had raised $29 Mn Series A funding in a round led by Volition Capital.
A report by MarketsandMarkets suggests that the current global spend on cybersecurity is expected to grow to $202.36 Bn by 2021.
In 2017, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had asked all other ministries to spend 10% of their IT budgets on cybersecurity following the May 2017 worldwide cyberattack by the WannaCry ransomware.
