Expel insider · 4 MIN READ · DAVE MERKEL, YANEK KORFF AND JUSTIN BAJKO · NOV 18, 2021 · TAGS: Cloud security / Company news / MDR
Here comes the unicorn swag.
Expel is abuzz with the recent announcement that we’ve officially reached “unicorn” status. Even though many of us are still working from our homes during this infernal lingering global pandemic – the excitement is palpable.
Our $140.3 Million Series E financing is an incredible gust of wind in our sails. CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, and Paladin Capital Group co-led another round of financing with support from our existing investors: Greycroft, Index Ventures and Scale Venture Partners.
We’re also excited to welcome new investors participating in this round: Cisco Investments and March Capital.
There’s a long list of things we’re grateful for that we’ll be sharing with our family and friends this Thanksgiving. We were named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Managed Detection And Response, Q1 2021 and Leader in IDC MarketScape for U.S. Managed Detection and Response Services Market 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc #US48129921, August 2021).
We won Exabeam’s MSSP/MDR U.S. and North America partner of the year award and have been listed on a number of FORTUNE’s best places to work lists. We were listed on the AWS Marketplace where people can buy our 24×7 MDR service for their AWS (and hybrid) environments, and continued forming strong partnerships with our community. And we did it all while maintaining quarterly NPS scores of over 80 despite our rapid growth.
Oh, and we’re now a tech startup that reached a $1 billion valuation in just five years. That’s really freakin’ cool.
That puts us among 32 other cybersecurity unicorns – nine of which have also reached this milestone in 2021. That’s 32 out of more than 3,500 cybersecurity companies. And that’s just in the U.S.
It’s humbling.
We’re honored to be listed among these companies, and to know that our investors continue to place their bets on us – understanding that we’ll use these resources to continue building something that sets us apart from other MDR vendors and defines the future of the modern security operations center (SOC).
Since inception, we’ve wanted to create space for people to do what they love about security. And we’re doing it! Our customers love it. Our investors see that, and they’re doubling down.
Could we have done this alone? No way.
The fact that we did that during some truly unusual and painful times can’t be overlooked. We’re eternally grateful to our team, customers and partners.
Locking arms to climb the mountain
That’s been our motto for the past year and a half. We end every all-hands meeting with the reminder that we’ll make it – we just need to lock arms as we climb this mountain. Because we get it done together. It’s not about ninjas and rockstars; it’s about the strength of our team.
We set out to make security as accessible as the internet, and this past year put all of us to the test. And the Expel team didn’t just rise to the occasion – we were named among the leaders in the industry.
Recognition from Forrester and IDC is an honor and further validation that even during times of chaos, we can and will deliver on our mission to help people get back to doing what they love.
We can’t say it enough: we couldn’t have done this without our customers and partners. Together, we’ve built something that goes beyond world-class security. And we’ve been blown away by the enthusiastic outreach we’ve received from other security leaders and can’t wait to build upon and expand those partnerships. Our collective curiosity allowed us to look around corners, create community outside Expel and build something that’s changing the industry.
You might have heard (and read) about how we focus on optimizing the human moment. So, what does that really mean?
We’re not just talking about using tech to handle what can be automated so our crew can shine in the moments that need a human mind. We’re making space for Expletives to grow and show up to work authentically. We’re giving our customers time back in their day so they can focus on what makes them look forward to coming into work. We’re discovering what’s next and creating solutions with our partners.
In 2020, we all found ourselves at the foot of a tall and scary-looking mountain. But this group locked arms and we climbed up.
It confirmed what us founders already knew – with this crew, we can climb any mountain.
Forging ahead
As our customers navigate still uncertain times, they can be certain that we’ll have their back. This new investment will help us continue to keep our customers safe while also pioneering a path forward. We’re growing quickly in both size and in the myriad ways in which we help keep our customers safe.
Our industry has a lot to consider as we look to what’s next: ransomware attacks are on the rise, phishing tactics are evolving and orgs of all sizes are waking up in the cloud. And those are just a few examples.
These aren’t easy challenges to tackle. But we have the utmost faith in our team and the outstanding collaboration we experience with our existing customers.
The creative minds and technical skills that Expletives bring to the table will guarantee that we’ll make very good use of this money. We’ll continue to expand our cloud security offerings, grow our sales operations, explore going international, add to our rapidly growing list of security partners and throw open the gates that have locked out so many people from entering the cybersecurity field.
What this all means is that we’ll keep building seriously cool $#*!. We’ll keep bringing in new ideas and perspectives to the team through our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruitment initiatives – or Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (EID) as we call it here at Expel – that will keep us at the front of the pack. And thanks to our incredible crew, we’ll continue to dramatically improve the efficacy of detection and response.
Expletives will continue problem solving with our customers and partners – keeping a close eye on the trends that impact our customers and inspire us to build new capabilities. And we’ll keep sharing the insights we gather on a regular basis with the community through blogs, attack vectors reports and by creating platforms for our crew to share their experiences and knowledge with the security community.
We’re proud of the ground we’ve covered this past year. And we’re even more excited about where we’re going next.
Want to find out more about what we’re doing next? We’d love to chat.
