Latest Funding Round to Support New Sales and Marketing Initiatives for ‘Rocket Ship’ SASE Market and Fuel Company’s Aggressive Growth Plans for 2021 and Beyond
Versa Networks, the leader in SASE, today announced that it has raised $84 million in a Series D funding round, bringing the company’s total amount raised in funding to $196 million. The funding round was co-led by investors Princeville Capital and RPS Ventures, with additional participation from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital. This new round of funding will enable Versa to introduce new go-to-market strategies, launch new sales and partner enablement initiatives, and address new markets to further cement its leadership position in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market.
According to Gartner, the SASE market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 42 percent, reaching almost $11 billion, with at least 40 percent of enterprises having SASE adoption strategies in place by 2024. However, in recent global research it was revealed that more than two thirds (69 percent) of organizations couldn’t correctly define SASE. To raise awareness within the market on SASE and the benefits it can bring to organizations, Versa will use its new funding to invest in driving global educational marketing and sales campaigns, as well as further supporting its partner communities to spread the message to enterprises across the globe. The funding will also be utilized to enable further SASE R&D and boost future expansion and growth plans.
“SASE is the fastest growing category in networking and security, and the continued support from our investors is a testament to not only our innovative technology, but to our ethos as a company to deliver secure access and networking solutions to all organizations, from enterprises to SMBs, that address and solve the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis,” said Kelly Ahuja, CEO of Versa Networks. “We are the only company that offers a fully integrated SASE solution. We saw the opportunity in the market and have been providing enterprises around the world with a truly modern secure network for five years, so it is exciting that the rest of the industry now recognizes the real value and benefits that SASE can provide.”
“This is a technology that is on course to really take off in the coming year and beyond, and this investment means that we are best placed to be at the helm of that rocket ship as SASE becomes the star in businesses’ security and networking arsenal,” added Ahuja.
Versa SASE provides a comprehensive SASE solution within an integrated software stack, hardware-agnostic, software-only offering that scales seamlessly to provide SASE services via the cloud, on-premises, or as a blended combination of both. With a single interface to configure and implement corporate policies, Versa SASE delivers visibility and control through a single pane of glass and has security embedded into the heart of the solution. Versa protects all corporate resources with unified security policies for every session for every user, on any device, accessing any application. Gartner has identified Versa SASE as having the most SASE components out of all 56 vendors Gartner evaluated. Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) also found that Versa SASE has the most SASE supported functions, as published in its recent industry report.
Joaquin Rodriguez Torres, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Princeville Capital, said, “With Versa, we have found a truly innovative company that had the foresight to develop a solution for a fast-growing market that has real long-term and investible potential. SASE is quickly becoming the top priority of every enterprise and is a market that is on the cusp of explosive success, so we’re thrilled to be part of Versa’s journey as they continue to revolutionize the way businesses approach their networking and security challenges.”
This funding comes on the back of a record year for Versa Networks, where the growth of the remote workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic saw organizations across the world accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and turn to flexible and secure solutions such as SD-WAN and SASE to address their networking and security needs. As a result, Versa Networks has seen its worldwide sales in enterprises and channel partner registrations double, increased its workforce by 25 percent, and grew its market share to 150 service providers, including seven of the world’s top 10.
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