Israel’s Salt Security joins unicorn club
The company, which develops API security solutions, raised $140 million in Series D funding at $1.4 billion
API security company Salt Security announced last week that it raised $140 million in Series D funding, an investment which brings the valuation of Salt Security to $1.4 billion. The latest funding Series was led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, and brings the company’s total funding to $271 million, with $210 million raised in the last 12 months.
In July 2021, Salt Security published a report indicating a rise of 348% in API attacks over the previous six months. Gartner predicts that by 2022, API attacks will become the most frequent-attack vector. Accordingly, demand for API security solutions has been surging.
Salt Security will use the additional capital to expand R&D investment, fuel sales and marketing, and more rapidly grow its international operations to address the growing number of cyber threats targeting APIs.
“Our investment in Salt Security comes at a time of critical importance for the wider business community. APIs are essential to enabling business innovation, but security risks are multiplying at an unprecedented scope and scale,” said James Luo, Partner at CapitalG and Salt Security board member.
"Like fellow YCC companies Stripe in payments and DoorDash in food delivery, Salt will become an iconic security company,” raved Ali Rowghani, managing director of YC Continuity, which invested in this and previous round.
“Five years ago, the Salt founders had the vision to create this critical category, and they have led it ever since by creating the most secure and robust solution in the industry”
Over the past year, Salt added a number of leading financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, eCommerce/retail, and digital services companies to its customer ranks. Recent new customers include Takeda Pharmaceuticals, bp Launchpad, Markel, Icatu Seguros, Apiture, and Berkshire Bank.
In the same period, the company drove a 500% growth in revenue, 300% growth in its customer base, 250% growth in its employee count, and 900% growth in signed customers among Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies. It also made public the findings and analysis of its security research division, Salt Labs.
“APIs provide the foundation for innovation in today’s economy. Our vision for Salt Security has always been to make it safer and easier for companies to innovate by securing APIs in the face of a growing and dynamic attack surface,” said Roey Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder, Salt Security.