Norse, a specialist in live attack intelligence, has closed its Series A1 round of funding led by a strategic investment from KPMG Capital, KPMG International’s global investment fund.
The investment will enable KPMG’s member firms to offer Norse threat intelligence products and services to clients through the KPMG network’s global cyber security practice. The remainder of the USD11.4 million total raised in this round was provided by a group of existing investors, and the funds will be used by Norse primarily to bolster the company’s product development efforts and accelerate the expansion of its global sales organisation to capitalise on high-growth market opportunities abroad.
The additional Series A1 funding now brings the total venture funding raised by Norse to USD42 million.
“KPMG clearly understands the complex challenges that public and private organisations face and that threat intelligence and the insights that it brings are at the heart of the next generation of information security. They also have a strong presence in the parts of the world where we see our greatest opportunities for growth,” says Norse CEO Sam Glines. “KPMG Capital’s strategic investment in Norse is a strong endorsement of our technology and our approach, and we are thrilled to have our efforts recognised by such an established and highly regarded global consultancy with deep business and technology experience.”
“As trusted advisors to governments and industries around the world, KPMG member firms work to find smart, creative and forward-thinking technologies like Norse threat intelligence solutions to help address cyber security challenges,” says Mark Toon 9pictured), CEO, KPMG Capital. “Through KPMG Capital’s strategic investment in Norse, we can ensure that clients will benefit from their industry-leading technologies today and in the future.”
Norse has already taken important steps towards achieving its product development and sales expansion goals. Norse recently announced the appointment of Andrew Lewman to the newly created position of vice president of data development, where he will extend Norse’s lead in gathering, processing and applying live threat intelligence for the next generation of enterprise security solutions. Norse also named David Weier, an accomplished sales executive with more than 20 years of experience building and leading high-performance sales teams, as senior vice president of worldwide sales.
Norse’s family of enterprise threat intelligence solutions includes the Norse Appliance 10g and the Norse Intelligence Service, a turnkey “early-warning-as-a-service” that helps large financial services firms and government agencies quickly identify compromised systems, spot malicious activity and track attacks while they are still under way.
By analysing the large amount of data that comes through its network, Norse’s suite of solutions gives organisations the ability to instantly assess the risk level and threat context of connections both inside and outside their networks. Threats are identified in near real time, allowing companies to block the sources of threats as they happen.
Norse’s in-house team of cyber intelligence and counterintelligence fusion analysts, many recruited directly from military and government intelligence organisations, are at the core of the Norse Threat Intelligence Service. These security professionals deeply understand the wider threat landscape and each customer’s incident response options and offer the crucial human touch missing from fully automated solutions.
