Waterloo has a new unicorn in town.
eSentire, the cybersecurity innovator, has announced a new $325 million financing deal that will give the company a $1.1 billion valuation.
The new funding comes as eSentire has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The company’s platform is used by 1,200 organizations in more than 75 countries and they are a recognized leader in the managed detection and response (MDR) space. One of their main competitors – Arctic Wolf – also has a large portion of its operations, including the vast majority of its tech and research teams, in Waterloo.
With these new funds, eSentire plans on expanding its operations to Europe and the Asia-Pacific, growing the platform and the company’s geographic reach. To do so, the company plans on hiring 400 new employees in the coming months.
eSentire is the fourth Waterloo company to become a unicorn – a tech company with a $1 billion valuation – in the last couple of years. Faire, an ecommerce wholesale marketplace, is now valued at $12.8 billion and ApplyBoard, a service that simplifies international post-secondary applications, is valued at $3.2 billion. Arctic Wolf is valued at $4.3 billion.
In addition to joining a growing cadre of unicorns, eSentire is part of a large cybersecurity community within Waterloo that includes BlackBerry, Arctic Wolf, McAfee and Magnet Forensics, as well as companies working on cybersecurity projects within the community like Google, Oracle NetSuite and Escrypt (Bosch). In total there are 100+ companies working in everything from embedded security to cryptography to threat detection in Waterloo.
Why are so many cybersecurity companies in one mid-sized Canadian city?
It starts with talent – the University of Waterloo is Canada’s top technology university and one of the world’s top computer science schools. But, more specifically, it’s due to the unique talent we produce in Waterloo. Cybersecurity is a key element in our computer science programs, as is quantum information, which influences the development of new security technologies and represents the next generation of cybersecurity. It’s no coincidence that BlackBerry – a company that built its reputation on security – was founded by University of Waterloo graduates.
But, it’s more than just students – it’s an ecosystem that connects research, application and commercialization in cybersecurity. There are at least 15 different research labs at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College working on the cutting edge of everything from wireless communications security to automotive security.