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Cybersecurity threats today are increasingly more common and more sophisticated, but Awake Security is working to find and remediate threats that would otherwise go undetected by traditional solutions.

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The Santa Clara, California-based startup closed on a $36 million Series C round of funding Wednesday led by new investor Evolution Equity Partners.

says its advanced network traffic analysis combines artificial intelligence with human expertise to seek out and learn insider and external attacker behaviors, while also providing autonomous triage and response.

鈥淲e look at everything going on the wire, cloud, etc., and build a platform to extract metadata,鈥� CEO Rahul Kashyap told 附近上门 News. 鈥淭hen we use advanced analytics to determine if it is a threat. We help our customers by looking at that data, [and] automating and identifying attacks, which normally take a lot of manpower to do.鈥�

Founded in 2014, the company has secured nearly $80 million in total funding, including the Series C round, according to Kashyap.

Joining in the latest funding round are new investors and , along with existing investors and .

鈥淲e鈥檙e partnering with Awake because we believe its platform can have a big impact in the industrial sector,鈥� Juan Muldoon, partner at Energize Ventures, said in a written statement. 鈥淭he challenges with protecting critical infrastructure are changing rapidly, and as the attack surface for digital threats expands, so have the blind spots for many organizations.鈥�

Prior to the Series C, Awake received $12 million in 2018 as part of an undisclosed Series B round led internally, Kashyap said.

In conjunction with the investment, Karthik Subramanian, partner at Evolution Equity, has joined Asheem Chandna, Enrique Salem and Kevin Mandia on Awake鈥檚 board of directors.

Cyber attacks will grow

Kashyap said he expects cybersecurity issues to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, while investors continue to bet on the industry.

Part of the issue is that companies are constrained as people are not going into the office, so it is tough to navigate issues, he added.

鈥淐OVID-19 is a prominent use case,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we can identify attacks and compromises in this environment, hopefully we can do something about that. What has happened is the industry, as a whole, is moving toward smarter detection and response in a more timely manner.鈥�

Meanwhile, In early April, Forbes pulled together expectations, such as that enterprises are likely to spend $12.6 billion on cloud security tools by 2023, up from $5.6 billion in 2018.

鈥楥ybersecurity weathers recessions鈥�

Awake Security is seeing that spending firsthand. The company has increased its annual recurring revenue by close to 700 percent and doubled its employee headcount over the past year, Kashyap said. It currently has about 65 employees.

He expects robust growth in customers as well.

鈥淐ybersecurity weathers recessions, and we are seeing increases in cyber attacks in the industry right now,鈥� Kashyap said. 鈥淪ome customers are doubling down on security, while others are pushing the pause button to evaluate their needs.鈥�

Awake plans to use the Series C funding to expand into Europe where there is a lot of demand, due in part to a shortage of skill and automation, he said. The company will also invest in itself, including new hires and capabilities.

Earlier in April, Awake Security told 附近上门 News it is offering to its network traffic analysis platform to hospitals and health care organizations to help identify ransomware and other cyber threats that could slow the COVID-19 response.

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