Ascent Venture Partners leads funding round with participation from MassMutual Ventures to accelerate growth for IoT and BYOD cyber security leader

May 11, 2016

3 Min Read

PRESS RELEASE

Boston, MA — May 11, 2016 — Pwnie Express, the leading provider of device threat detection, today announced a $12.9 million Series B round of funding, led by Ascent Venture Partners with investments from MassMutual Ventures LLC and existing investors .406 Ventures, Fairhaven Capital and the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET). This new investment will enable Pwnie Express to meet strong demand for its platform and accelerate its aggressive growth strategy.

“As BYOD and the Internet of Things become an integral part of business IT, there is a huge need to protect businesses from the threats created by all these new devices,” said Matt Fates, General Partner at Ascent Venture Partners. “Pwnie Express is uniquely positioned to deliver the device detection, identification and threat assessment platform required to secure business-critical data and infrastructure.” In addition to Ascent leading the new round of financing, Matt Fates will join Pwnie Express’s board of directors.

Pwnie Express is the market leader in addressing the threat landscape related to BYOD, IoT and rogue devices in the enterprise. Pwnie’s SaaS platform is unique in its ability to detect, identify, assess and respond to device threats, providing security professionals unprecedented visibility and control over the devices in and around their networks.

“I am thrilled to have Ascent and MassMutual Ventures as new investors, as well as the continued support from .406 Ventures, Fairhaven Capital and VCET. Having the financial and strategic support of these leading security investors further validates both our market opportunity and growing momentum as a company,” said Paul Paget, CEO of Pwnie Express. “We have assembled a very talented team and this investment puts us in a unique position to meet the growing demand for our platform driven by the dramatic shift in the device demographics of the enterprise.”

“We are excited to join the Pwnie Express team as they lead the way in addressing emerging threats related to the wireless workplace,” said Mark Goodman, Managing Director of MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. “Cybersecurity plays an integral role in MassMutual’s overall corporate mission of helping people secure their future and protect the ones they love.”

The company has seen strong adoption of its SaaS device threat detection platform, Pulse, which it released last year. Over 100 customers from a wide range of industries, including financial services, healthcare, government, energy, manufacturing and retail, have deployed Pwnie Express across their enterprise. Pwnie Express will use this latest round of capital to accelerate this momentum and build out its sales, marketing and engineering teams.

About Pwnie Express:

Pwnie Express provides the industry’s only solution for continuous detection, identification and classification of wireless, wired and Bluetooth devices putting organizations at risk. Connected devices in the enterprise represent one of the fastest growing threats, unaddressed by existing security solutions. The Pwnie Express SaaS platform, Pulse, provides complete device coverage, including employee owned (BYOx), rogue and company-owned devices across the entire enterprise, including remote sites. To learn more about Pwnie Express visit www.pwnieexpress.com.

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