Tel Aviv-based Perception Point raises €23.3 million in Series B round, targets content-based cyber attacks

2020 was a hacker’s dream come true. A vast swath of a global population working from home with little-to-no security measures in place, and all using one collaboration platform or another. Or 6 on average, as the case may be.

In the first few months of our seemingly unending series of lockdowns, phishing attacks rose 667% in less than a month, and according to the European Union Agency for Cyber Security Phishing, Identity Theft, Insider Threats, Information Leakage, and Ransomware were the top 5 increasing trends in 2020.

This author is no hacker by far, but consider myself fairly aware when it comes to what’s what and what to and not to click on. And yes, and even I fell victim to a phishing attack late last year. One that I’ve spent more than a few months setting straight.

As Perception Point notes, “collaboration and communication apps are a dream: they are used for sharing content (i.e., text, files, and URLs), are perceived as safe by the users (unlike email), and typically have little to no built-in or even 3rd-party security.” Bingo. Whatsapp message from a friend (whose account had been hacked), click, bang. Ouch.

To this end, Red Dot Capital Partners, joined by NGP Capital along with existing investors Pitango Venture Capital and State of Mind Ventures (SOMV), have added €23.3 million to Tel Aviv-based Perception Point’s coffers in a Series B round. This now brings the security firms total raised to just shy of €40 million. As part of the funding deal Yoram Oron and Atad Peled from Red Dot Capital Partners, and Bo Ilsoe from NGP Capital will be joining the company’s board of directors.

Red Dot Capital Partners managing partner Yoran Oron explains, “Perception Point is perfectly positioned to capture the rapidly growing yet untapped messaging and collaboration market. The beauty of Perception Point is that it addresses challenges that many companies encounter today, offering a 360-degree, SaaS solution that enhances enterprise security and allows users to become more agile and responsive.”

A record amount of VC money has flowed into cybersecurity startups in 2020, almost €6.9 billion globally, and since the beginning of the pandemic, a staggering number of these firms have achieved unicorn status. Snyk, Cato, SentinelOne, and Orca, to name a few. 

In line with this trend, Perception Point posted their most successful year to date in 2020. Recurring revenues tripled and the company doubled its number of Fortune 500 clients, as well as attracting new customers in the telecom, tech, retail, food and beverage, healthcare, and financial services industries.

Founded in 2015 by Michael Aminov, Shlomi Levin, and Yevgeny Pats, Perception Point focuses its security efforts on intercepting content-based attacks. Specifically across collaboration channels, i.e. email, cloud storage platforms, customer relationship management apps, and the all-important messaging platforms. Putting some brand names into the equation: Outlook, Gmail, Teams, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

A good way to think of Perception Point is like an extra blanket on a cold winter’s night. It provides a force multiplier to an enterprise’s existing security operations centre, and sits between the outside world and an existing enterprise user at home. All of this can be deployed in a matter of minutes, with no changes necessary to an existing system, thereby creating little to no setup headaches for IT teams.

“Our prevention-as-a-service approach solves the customers’ most advanced messaging and collaboration security challenges, showing value immediately,” comments CEO Yoram Salinger. “We combine a 7-layer platform that easily and quickly integrates with any application along with a comprehensive incident response service to ensure flawless prevention, monitoring, and remediation of any attack.”