Orca Security Lands $210M As It Looks To Grow in Los Angeles

Orca Security Ltd., an Israeli-based cloud security startup with U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, has closed a $210 million Series C round and has plans to expand locally as it takes on competitors.

"This cash infusion makes Orca one of the world's fastest cybersecurity companies to reach unicorn status," said Shua, referring to privately held startups valued at over $1 billion. He said Orca plans to become a publicly traded company at some point. "We are not looking to get acquired."

Orca Security has assembled a who's who list of clients. It includes online stock trader Robinhood, New York-based insurer Lemonade, San Francisco-based data analytics firm Databricks and North Carolina-based digital bank Live Oak Bank.

It provides cloud security through its patent-pending "SideScanning" technology. The technology plugs up potential vulnerabilities from cyber threats and replaces them by combining everything into a single platform.

The round was led by Mountain View-based CapitalG, Google's independent growth fund and Menlo-based Redpoint Ventures, said co-founder and CEO Avi Shua, in an interview.

The company competes against cloud security heavyweights such as Qualys Inc., Rapid7 Inc. and Tenable Inc.

But their biggest rival is Santa Clara-based Palo Alto Networks Inc., which has been in a public spat with Orca. Shua said his company is not backing down.

Over the next year, Orca Security plans to "rapidly grow its headcount" in L.A. by hiring more marketing personnel and engineers, as well as beef up its research and development operation in Tel Aviv, Shua said. It also plans to form sales offices in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The company has plans to move into a brick-and-mortar spot in L.A. once pandemic restrictions are lifted.

"It is a prime location," Shua said. "The future for us is hybrid."

Other participants in this latest round include previous investors such as San Francisco-based ICONIQ Capital, Menlo Park-based GGV Capital and San Francisco-based SVCI, or Silicon Valley CISO Investments, an angel investing syndicate geared to chief information security officers.

Founded in December 2019, Orca Security raised $55 million in Series B funding three months ago, and $20 million in a Series A round in May – giving the technology company a market valuation of $1.2 billion, said Shua in the interview.