Written by Bain Capital Ventures Operating Partner Jeff Williams.
Gartner estimates that by the year 2020 we’ll see 20 billion connected devices in the enterprise — that’s not BYOD, but all the new IoT devices, now connected by WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee and more. It’s a staggering number, and CISOs are increasingly laser-focused on the unique, numerous and complex security risks that come with such a huge attack surface. Magnifying this concern is the reality that connected devices entering into the workplace, unmanaged by IT, can’t be addressed by traditional security solutions. This is a really big problem in need of a breakthrough solution.
These are a few reasons why I’m so excited that Bain Capital Ventures is one of two major investors in the $30 million Series B round for Armis. The company has built a system that quickly provides visibility, security and control over billions of these unmanaged devices across extremely complex networks. IoT security matters in a world of explosive connected device use.
Most companies can’t see or manage the growing number of IoT devices coming in and out of their corporate networks. This creates a huge security blind spot and an attractive target for malicious actors. Reports show IoT-focused attacks were up 300 percent to 600 percent in 2017.
Armis offers something truly unique by eliminating the enterprise IoT security blind spot. The company has built an agentless security solution that delivers full visibility of these devices in an enterprise environment, analyzes and classifies devices and their behavior in order to identify risks or attacks, and protects critical information and systems.
It doesn’t require any hardware and integrates seamlessly into any environment or existing infrastructure. Armis software deploys in under one hour, and companies see results in as little as 24 hours. That’s why customers, such as Samsung Research America, IDT Corporation, Gett and Baron Financial Group, see Armis as truly breakthrough.
Yevgeny Dibrov, founder and CEO, and Nadir Izrael, co-founder and CTO, are a strong co-founding team. They brought Armis out of stealth and began selling in June 2017.
Before then, Yevgeny was head of global business development for cloud security company Adallom, which was acquired by Microsoft. Nadir was senior software engineer and tech lead for Google Suggest, and he now steers Armis’ technology vision. Both served in the elite Israeli Cyber Security Defense Unit 8200. Their experience makes for a great blend of both commercial and technical leadership, and their broader team includes accomplished and experienced professionals across multiple disciplines.
IoT security is a big market — estimated at over $5 billion, and that will only expand as IoT adoption accelerates.
With an impressive team of technical and operational leaders, a differentiated solution and early market momentum, we are tremendously excited to be a part of the Armis journey. We look forward to helping the company set the standard for enterprise device security.
Kamal Shah and Vibhav Sreekanti are serial entrepreneurs whose Prophet AI platform uses automation to cut mean time to response to cybersecurity threats by 10x.
The Cyber Leaders are innovative CISOs and other top cybersecurity leaders, comprising a community that will benefit each member and the Bain Capital network.
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