Signal Sciences Snapped up for $775M in Big LA SaaS Exit

Francesca Billington

Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.

Signal Sciences Snapped up for $775M in Big LA SaaS Exit

Cloud computing company Fastly announced plans to acquire Culver City-based Signal Sciences for $775 million on Thursday. It's the largest enterprise exit in L.A., according to Andrew Peterson, the CEO of Signal Sciences.

Signal, founded in 2014, protects web applications from attacks and data breaches for clients like Duo Security, Under Armor and DoorDash. With breaches costing an average $3.86 million, preventing them has become imperative for many businesses.


"The main reason why folks are adopting us is because all of them are going through this type of digital transformation movement," Peterson said. "They're building more software and trying to build it faster. That's what we empower them to do."

Fastly provides content delivery services to websites and apps with customers such as TikTok, Vimeo, Pinterest and The New York Times. The addition of Signal will help boost its security portfolio.

"We've been really big fans of their technology from the beginning," said Peterson, who before creating Signal Sciences used Fastly to build security technology for Etsy.

"Their story is very similar to ours in the sense that their founding team was also practitioners before," he said. "They also saw firsthand some of the problems of trying to modernize technology stacks and focused on empowering developers and development technology teams in the process of building critical infrastructure."

Signal Sciences has seen a boost in demand recently as in-person retail dropped during the pandemic and companies that had put off plans to build a web presence decided they couldn't wait any longer.

Signal Science's last funding round came in February of 2019 when the company brought in $35 million, led by Lead Edge Capital. They currently employ over 150 and are looking to hire more.

Fastly is based in San Francisco-based but half of its employees work from around the world, and many are in L.A., Peterson said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Fastly will acquire Signal Sciences for $200 million in cash and approximately $575 million worth of Class A Common Stock, according to a statement.

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LA Tech Week's Climate Panel Unveils Funding Secrets for Green Startups

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

LA Tech Week's Climate Panel Unveils Funding Secrets for Green Startups
Samson Amore

In a region known for being a national trailblazer when it comes to climate policies, there’s no shortage of green energy startups in L.A. looking for funding. There’s also a plethora of investors and incubators, which means founders looking for cash flow should be extra specific about their value proposition when they pitch to cut through the noise. At least that was the message coming from the panelists at the UCLA Anderson School of Management on Tuesday.

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LA Tech Week Day Two: Social Highlights
Evan Xie

L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

Here's what people are saying about day two of L.A. Tech Week on social:

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LA Tech Week: Technology and Storytelling for Social Good

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Technology and Storytelling for Social Good
Photo taken by Decerry Donato

On Monday, Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization Goldhirsh Foundation hosted the Technology and Storytelling For Social Good panel at Creative Visions studio to kick off LA Tech week.

Tara Roth, president of the foundation, moderated the panel and gathered nonprofit and tech leaders including Paul Lanctot, web developer of The Debt Collective; Alexis Cabrera, executive director of 9 Dots; Sabra Williams, co-founder of Creative Acts; and Laura Gonzalez, senior program manager of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

Each of the panelists are grantees of Goldhirsh Foundation’s LA2050, an initiative launched in 2011 that is continuously trying to drive and track progress toward a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles. Goldhirsh’s vision is to make Los Angeles better for all and in order to achieve their goal, the foundation makes investments into organizations, creates partnerships and utilizes social capital through community events.

The panelists shared how the work they are doing in each of their respective sectors uses technology to solve some of society's most pressing challenges and highlight the importance of tech literacy across every community.

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