Egress, a leading provider of data privacy and compliance software designed to secure unstructured data, today announced it has raised $40m in a Series C financing round led by FTV Capital, with continued participation from existing backer AlbionVC. Egress will use this investment to build on its ongoing rapid growth in Europe and North America, as well as accelerate development of new technology across its data security platform.
A market leader in privacy and risk management, Egress helps enterprises protect unstructured data to meet compliance requirements and drive business productivity. The company’s AI-powered platform enables users to control and secure the data they share in line with evolving compliance regulations, including GDPR, the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR 500), and the recently-passed California Consumer Privacy Act. Since raising $3.6m in Series A funding in February 2014, Egress has grown ARR by 9x, acquired over 2,000 customers and now supports more than five million users globally.
Egress customer, the US State of Delaware, has been using the technology to help protect highly sensitive data and manage compliance. “As a regulated US Government State Agency, we recognised the importance of selecting a best-of-breed security partner,” explained Director of Network Engineering Mark Cabry. “Egress understands our complex business requirements and their technical innovation has helped us to maintain privacy and mitigate risk when sharing data across and outside government, leading us to deploy the service state-wide. It is therefore of little surprise that Egress is continuing to gain significant traction throughout the US market.”
Tony Pepper, CEO and co-founder of Egress, commented on the announcement: “Today’s heightened security threats, combined with an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, means that organisations face considerable risk from data breaches, resulting in reputational damage and significant financial loss. At Egress, we help businesses mitigate this risk by wrapping security around the user and managing their experience using machine learning and AI. This risk-based approach helps users avoid potential mistakes, such as sending information to the wrong recipients, and provides security administrators with insight into behavioural anomalies across the business.
“We are delighted to be partnering with FTV as we enter the next phase of our development. A prominent growth equity firm with an impressive track record of helping similar companies in our space to scale rapidly, FTV will bring invaluable strategic expertise to help expand our technical capabilities and business operations into new markets and geographies.”
As part of the transaction, FTV partner Kyle Griswold will join the Egress board of directors. “The need for comprehensive data security systems that help prevent data breaches and maintain compliance has become one of the key strategic priorities for businesses globally,” stated Griswold. “Egress’ user-centric strategy, combined with their use of AI-driven technical innovation, is helping to tackle these challenges head on. Their success in highly regulated markets is evidenced by their rapid growth and exceptional customer retention rates, which make them an ideal partner for FTV and an attractive solution for the financial institutions in our Global Partner Network.
“By partnering with Egress at this point in their journey, FTV will offer strategic support and guidance designed to accelerate growth and capitalise on what is a significant market opportunity, in addition to commercial introductions to our Global Partner Network enterprises.”
Ed Lascelles, partner at AlbionVC, commented: “We look forward to supporting Egress as it enters the next stage of expansion. We have witnessed first-hand how the business has built out an enterprise-grade data security platform from a niche point solution, while growing into new verticals and geographies during the period. The demand for enhanced data security is only going to increase and so we remain excited about the team’s ability to continue delivering rapid growth.”
About FTV Capital
Celebrating its 20 year anniversary, FTV Capital is a growth equity investment firm that has raised over $2.7 billion to invest in high-growth companies offering a range of innovative solutions in three sectors: enterprise technology & services, financial services and payments & transaction processing. FTV’s experienced team leverages its domain expertise and proven track record in each of these sectors to help motivated management teams accelerate growth. FTV also provides companies with access to its Global Partner Network®, a group of the world’s leading enterprises and executives who have helped FTV portfolio companies for two decades. Founded in 1998, FTV Capital has invested in 107 portfolio companies including compliance/security and managed services companies such as A-LIGN, Aveksa (acquired by EMC), KVS (acquired by Veritas), ReliaQuest and Trustwave (acquired by Singapore Telecom). FTV has offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, visit www.ftvcapital.com.
About AlbionVC
AlbionVC is the technology investment arm of Albion Capital Group LLP. The technology team invests from seed through to Series B in high growth companies, predominantly in the UK, with a particular focus on B2B software and technology enabled services. Albion has 20+ years’ experience investing in technology, has c.£450m FUM in technology companies and over 40 tech investments within its portfolios.
Albion Capital Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Visit: www.albion.vc
