Cato Networks Lands $77M In Biggest Funding Round To Date

The cloud networking specialist now has more than $200 million in funding under its belt, which the company plans to use to scale its SASE platform and invest more in partners.

Cloud networking specialist Cato Networks has secured its largest round of financing yet, bringing its total funding to date to more than $200 million.

Cato Networks, which does 100 percent of its business through partners, on Thursday announced that its latest investment round of $77 million comes after a 220 percent increase in bookings and a very strong first quarter of 2020, despite global pressures, including the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Yishay Yovel, chief marketing officer of Cato Networks, told CRN.

The new founding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with the participation of Aspect Ventures, Greylock Partners, Singtel Innov8, U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), and Shlomo Kramer, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company said.

[Related: Cato Networks Launches Global Partner Program, Updated Portal]

Cato is helping global enterprises weather the coronavirus crisis today that has forced millions of employees work remotely, but also prepare for future opportunities, Yovel said.

The customers we sell to want to be ready for whatever's next," he said. "Whatever 'next" comes, we can deploy services, with a click of a button, and customers can decide what they want to consume," he said.

Cato Networks stands out in the crowded SD-WAN space because of its unique approach to the market that combines security, mobility, and SD-WAN via its all-in-one, secure access service edge (SASE) platform, Yovel said. Research firm Gartner predicts that 40 percent of companies will look to adopt SASE for their cloud-based networking postures by 2024.

"Instead of having point SD-WAN, security, and mobility products, the strength of SASE is that it puts in place a platform that is ready to deliver on network evolution, without [the customer] having to buy anything else," Yovel said.

The latest funding will go toward scaling its global SASE platform, as well as growing its sales, marketing and engineering resources. The company is also earmarking some of its funding for investment in its channel, including scaling its partner program and events with both resellers and agent partners, and growing its channel management and marketing teams, Yovel said.

Partner-fueled Cato Networks was founded in 2015 and has about 200 employees today. The company in 2019 secured a $55 million investment round after growing its bookings by 352 percent in 2018. That growth, according to the company, was led by its channel partners.

The company formally launched a new channel program in November for resellers and agent partners. The program, said Yovel, offers both sales and technical training resources for partners.