Boston-based, Tel Aviv-founded startup Pentera has announced a significant milestone, raising $60 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at over $1 billion. This investment, led by Evolution Equity Partners and participated by Farallon Capital, will be utilized for strategic M&A activities and continued product development.

Pentera's innovative approach to cybersecurity focuses on automated security validation, simulating network attacks to stress test software and human response. This "pen testing" technology, officially described as "automated security validation," enables enterprises and governments to launch realistic attacks against themselves, identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses in their security systems.

According to CEO Amitai Ratzon, Pentera's solution provides a safe and controlled environment for security teams to drill and improve their response to potential threats. "We provide enterprises and governments a technology that, with a click of a button, can launch a mega attack against themselves, and with another click, the genie goes back into the bottle," Ratzon explained. "The beautiful thing is that it's all safe by design."

The funding announcement comes on the heels of Pentera's remarkable growth, with a 200% increase in customers to 1,100 organizations and a 300% surge in annual recurring revenue (ARR) over the past four years. This rapid expansion underscores the significant demand for Pentera's automated security validation tools in the market.

Prior to this Series D round, Pentera had raised $190 million in a combination of primary and secondary equity, according to PitchBook. The company's investor base includes Insight, K1, Blackstone, and Evolution Equity Partners, among others.

The cybersecurity landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, driven in part by the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in both malicious hacking and security tools. Pentera's platform takes this trend into account, leveraging AI to identify vulnerabilities and provide actionable insights to security teams.

When Pentera launches simulated attacks, it targets specific vulnerabilities, generating a vast number of alerts – up to 10,000, according to Ratzon. To address this common issue in security tooling, Pentera's technology automatically filters out the noise, distilling the alerts down to six or eight root causes or exploitable vulnerabilities, and providing recommendations for remediation.

Richard Seewald, managing partner at Evolution Equity Partners, praised Pentera's innovative approach, stating, "Pentera has redefined enterprise security testing and validation practices... Pentera's exceptional growth, strong enterprise adoption, and category-defining innovation make it the clear leader in Automated Security Validation."

With this latest funding round, Pentera is poised to continue its rapid expansion, driving growth through strategic M&A activities and further developing its automated security validation platform. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, Pentera's innovative approach is well-positioned to address the growing demand for effective security solutions.