Just a couple of years ago, venture capital funding poured into cybersecurity startups at an unprecedented rate, with a staggering $23 billion inundating the sector, as reported by Crunchbase.
However, in 2023, cybersecurity startups experienced a significant decline, receiving only a third of the previous funding. This downturn was attributed to the extraordinary surge in 2021, inflated valuations, and investor apprehension due to market volatility.
Nevertheless, amidst challenging times, there are always success stories.
Recently, NinjaOne, an IT platform specializing in endpoint management, security, and visibility, made headlines by announcing a remarkable achievement. The company successfully raised $231.5 million in a Series C funding round, spearheaded by Iconiq Growth.
This substantial funding round, which also saw participation from notable figures such as Frank Slootman, the chairman and CEO of Snowflake, and Amit Agarwal, the president of Datadog, has propelled NinjaOne to a valuation of $1.9 billion, according to co-founder and CEO Sal Sferlazza.
Sferlazza revealed that NinjaOne wasn’t actively seeking fundraising opportunities but received significant interest from various potential investors, including Iconiq.
In an email interview with TechCrunch, Sferlazza expressed confidence in the partnership with Iconiq, emphasizing the firm’s track record of assisting top companies like Snowflake, Datadog, and CrowdStrike in achieving their full potential. He further asserted NinjaOne’s commitment to scaling its business and team, enhancing product offerings, and supporting global growth as the customer base and product portfolio evolve.
Sferlazza and NinjaOne’s president and CFO, Chris Matarese, founded NinjaOne in Austin, Texas, in 2014. Sferlazza played a pivotal role in the early development stages, collaborating closely with the founding team to create endpoint management, patching, and support tools.
“We identified a significant need to assist organizations in managing their endpoints—a need that has only intensified with the surge in remote and hybrid work during the pandemic,” he stated. “Endpoints represent both a significant risk and opportunity in the post-pandemic landscape, and NinjaOne is committed to automating and simplifying IT operations for our clients, especially in light of the unprecedented rise of generative AI.”
NinjaOne’s suite of tools, designed to seamlessly integrate with existing IT and security platforms, encompasses remote device monitoring, data backup, software deployment, alerting, scripting, and application automation. The company boasts managing over seven million endpoints for more than 17,000 customers, including prominent names like Hello Fresh, Nissan, Nvidia, Pabst Brewing Company, the State of California, and the University of Oxford.
“Our primary objective when founding NinjaOne was to develop a diverse range of products centered on customer success,” Sferlazza emphasized. “This core principle remains our top priority today, driving our significant business growth.”
Currently, NinjaOne’s funding totals $282.7 million, with a revenue growth rate of 70% year-over-year.
Sferlazza disclosed that the funds from the latest financing round will be allocated to expanding NinjaOne’s approximately 1,000-person team and investing in automating “the most challenging aspects” of IT. “By streamlining endpoint management, enhancing security, and accelerating the deployment of new technologies, we aim to deliver unmatched customer success,” he added.
Roy Luo of Iconiq, who has joined NinjaOne’s board of directors, commented in a press release, “Under Sal and Chris’s outstanding leadership, NinjaOne has demonstrated remarkable product development speed, resulting in increased market share, geographical expansion, and customer growth. We are excited to support their dynamic leadership, unwavering dedication to customer satisfaction, and ongoing growth trajectory through our global platform.”
