Expel insider · 3 MIN READ · DAVE MERKEL, YANEK KORFF AND JUSTIN BAJKO · MAY 13, 2020 · TAGS: Announcement / Company news / Managed security
You’re probably expecting a pithy introduction to this blog post.
And under normal circumstances, we’d have one waiting for you.
However, that tongue-in-cheek intro doesn’t feel right given what’s happening in our world right now. Which is why today we’re going to cut straight to the heart of what we want to share.
We’re incredibly grateful and humbled to tell you that we’ve raised a new round of funding. This time, our $50 Million Series D financing was led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, with participation from many of our existing investors: Battery Ventures, Greycroft, Index Ventures, Paladin Capital Group and Scale Venture Partners.
We’re thankful that we get to continue on our journey to change the face of managed security – taking great care of our customers and our own crew along the way.
And while we’re celebrating this news because it’s good for the businesses we help protect every day and the employees who’ve joined us on this journey, celebrating while there’s an incredible amount of uncertainty in the world feels a bit uncomfortable.
It’s not lost on us how fortunate we are.
Our hope is that with this new round of funding, we can continue to serve our customers (and add new ones to the Expel family) to the best of our abilities, making space for them to do more than chase alerts … at a time when they need that flexibility the most.
Making space for teams to do what they love about security
When we founded Expel nearly four years ago, we set out to provide our customers with greater peace of mind about security – whether they’re operating “business as usual” or facing more challenging circumstances.
Our team had some initial core beliefs about the state of managed security that inspired us to build something different, and our customers have helped us confirm those beliefs:
- They want a security partner who’ll give them answers to solve their most pressing security challenges, not just toss them a handful of alerts and say, “You should really look into those.”
- They want a tech-first approach to security, ideally where they can get value right away from the tools they already own versus being told to go buy new ones (we love the “BYO tech” approach too).
- More than anything, they want to get better and keep their companies secure, all while maintaining their own sanity and their team’s … because anyone who has worked in security for any length of time knows that stress and burnout are very real.
During initial conversations about what we wanted the Expel brand to be – years ago when we were all gathered around a table in Merk’s barn – we tossed around this idea of “making space” for our customers to do what they love about security.
Since then, we’ve been thankful to hear directly from our customers about how we’ve supported them in “making space.” One of the more gratifying comments came from the CISO at a high-growth tech company who recently told us this: “I get 8+ hours of sleep a night and my child recognizes me as their father again thanks to Expel.”
There couldn’t be a better time than now to help our customers make space, whether it’s to work on more strategic security priorities for their business, support loved ones or care for their own health.
The road ahead
We know that so many are facing difficult times right now.
We’re optimistic, though, that the light at the end of the tunnel will ultimately be bright.
We’re incredibly grateful for this new round of funding, and look forward to continuing to serve our customers and take care of our own crew of Expletives.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported us on this journey so far: our employees, customers, partners, investors, family and friends.
If there’s one thing all of us wholeheartedly agree on, it’s that we’re privileged to work alongside such incredible people every day. It’s times like these that make us really appreciate that.
