Cybersecurity Deception Technology Pioneer illusive networks Raises $22 Million in Series B Funding Led by NEA

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- illusive networks, a cybersecurity company at the forefront of deception technology, today announced a $22 million Series B round of funding led by new investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world's largest and most active venture capital firms. The round includes participation from new and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLC , Citi Ventures, and Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors.  Kittu Kolluri, General Partner at NEA will join illusive networks' Board of Directors.

"Established security approaches, such as perimeter defense and old school honeypots, are failing to protect networks," said Kolluri. "illusive networks has a uniquely innovative vision, scalable architecture, and some of the best security DNA out there. We are thrilled to partner with the team to take deception-based technology to the next level."

"Today's headlines confirm the need for a completely new approach to stopping cyber attackers," said Shlomo Touboul, CEO, illusive networks. "illusive networks creates a hall of mirrors where attackers can no longer determine what's real and what's false. Two funding rounds in a four-month timespan demonstrate the confidence prominent investors have in the superiority of illusive networks Deceptions Everywhere™ approach." 

The new funding will further fuel illusive's global expansion investing in sales and marketing, as well as expanding the engineering and support teams for the company's patent pending security deception technologies.

illusive networks is deployed across dozens of leading financial institutions, insurance, retailers, law firms, healthcare providers, energy and telecommunication companies in the United States and EMEA. illusive networks' detection by deception technology has identified numerous advanced targeted attacks that went undetected by other solutions, thereby securing its customers' networks from Advanced Persistent Threats (APT).

Launched in June 2015, illusive networks raised a $5M Series A round from leading cybersecurity foundry Team8. In just four months, illusive has made a significant impact on the cybersecurity market and continues on an accelerated growth path with highlights including:

• Doubling its number of employees since the company's launch
• Opening a New York City office to further fuel North American growth
• Executive leadership hires in Sales and Marketing: Brian Harmon, SVP Sales, a 25-year sales veteran with software companies Cloud Passage, Agari, Palo Alto Networks, and Trend Micro; David Hunt, SVP of Worldwide Marketing, a 25-year international marketing veteran with software companies Symantec, Altiris, Novell, and WordPerfect
• Named a 2015 "Cool Vendor" in Security Intelligence by Gartner in April

"Deceptions are achieved through use of deceitful responses, purposeful obfuscations, feints, misdirection and other falsehoods," wrote Gartner security analyst Lawrence Pingree in the 'Emerging Technology Analysis: Deception Techniques and Technologies Create Security Technology Business Opportunities' Gartner note published July 16, 2015.  "These techniques leverage the trust that attackers and the attackers' tools must have in the network protocols, infrastructure, applications, systems and data elements they interact with or access during the execution of their attacks or through their intelligence gathering activities." 

illusive networks' Deceptions Everywhere™ solutions delivered via agentless patent pending technology blankets a company's entire network — every endpoint, server and network component — with information that deceives would-be attackers. When attackers act upon the false information, illusive networks neutralizes the attack and triggers a detailed breach report enabling security administrators to detect, track and contain the attack in its early stages.

About illusive networks

illusive networks is pioneering deception-based cybersecurity with its patent pending Deceptions Everywhere™ technology that neutralizes targeted attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) by creating a deceptive layer across the entire network. By providing an endless source of false information, illusive networks disrupts and detects breaches with real-time forensics and without disruption to business. For more information, please visit www.illusivenetworks.com or follow @illusivenw on Twitter.

illusive networks is led by CEO Shlomo Touboul, a proven cybersecurity CEO and entrepreneur.  illusive networks was founded by VP R&D Ofer Israeli, Check Point veteran, together with leading cybersecurity foundry Team8. Nadav Zafrir, CEO of Team8 and former Head of the IDF's Intelligence Unit 8200 serves as illusive network's Chairman of the Board.

Media kit: https://goo.gl/F9hUi2

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $17 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 200 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions since its founding in 1977. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

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SOURCE illusive networks

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