Dragos – a global leader in cybersecurity for industrial controls systems (ICS)/operational technology (OT) environments – recently announced a $74 million Series D extension led by strategic operating and investing firm WestCap. This equity investment is an extension of Dragos’s $200 million Series D in October 2021, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (an investment arm of Koch Industries) with funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, a leading global asset manager. This funding round brings the Series D round to $274 million, with total funds raised to date now approximately $440 million.
The global industrial cybersecurity market is expected to hit $10.2 billion by 2025 from $3.3 billion in 2020, registering exponential growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.3%, according to Frost & Sullivan. And the funding round will support additional go-to-market initiatives to meet growing demand.
This funding round will accelerate expansion in key growth markets, including North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, and across diverse industries, including electric, oil & gas, chemical, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, water, transportation, mining, and building automation.
This extension round comes at a time as governments and infrastructure providers globally recognize the importance of industrial cybersecurity and demand more attention to their ICS/OT environments. And this shift was demonstrated in the release of the Biden administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy this year and the March 23 hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources – during which Lee testified on the cybersecurity risks to energy infrastructure. Internationally, government initiatives across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific are seeing a similar impact.
The Series D funding extension will drive Dragos’s ability to make ICS/OT cybersecurity more accessible around the world. And this year, Dragos has already expanded across Western Europe and the DACH region, building on its established presence in the UK. This summer, Dragos entered into an agreement with Macnica to provide Dragos’s cybersecurity solutions in Japan – signifying Dragos’s expansion in Asia-Pacific beyond its presence in Australia and New Zealand. Earlier this year, the company signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to support the country’s efforts to defend against cyber-attacks to its operational technology and critical infrastructure. Plus, Dragos also continued to grow its footprint in the Middle East through its established presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
KEY QUOTES:
“The industrial threat landscape irreversibly changed this past year, and critical industries are seeking solutions that give them visibility into their OT networks and defend against the threats making headlines and driving government action. Demand for OT cybersecurity continues to be strong and this extension allows us to scale. What’s really exciting is that WestCap, as lead investor, is a partner in our success and shares our commitment to build the collective defense to protect industrial organizations and the communities they serve.”
— Robert M. Lee, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Dragos
“As cyberattacks escalate in frequency and complexity, it is critical that we support the scaling of leading companies like Dragos whose mission is to ‘safeguard civilization.’ Dragos is the category leader in protecting critical infrastructure with a holistic cybersecurity approach in the Operational Technology segment led by a respected leadership team with a proven track record for investigating the most high-profile cybercrimes in recent history and building innovative technology to isolate and combat those threats.”
— Laurence A. Tosi, Founder and Managing Partner at WestCap
