Application Security Startup Snyk Raises $300M To Go Global

Snyk plans to use some of its Series E proceeds to build out go-to-market teams in Australia, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore and has quadrupled its valuation since the start of 2020 to $4.7 billion.

Snyk has closed its Series E funding round on a monster $4.7 billion valuation as the red-hot startup looks to expand its presence in Asia-Pacific.

The Boston-based application security vendor plans to use some of the proceeds to build out go-to-market teams in Australia, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore and has brought on former Veeam Software and Dell EMC veteran Shaun McLagan to spearhead that charge. Snyk’s $300 million round was led by Accel and Tiger Global and represents a quadrupling of the firm’s valuation since the start of 2020.

“This latest investment allows us to accelerate our growth at every level—doubling down on our successful product-led growth strategy, adding to our customer roster, recruiting talent to our team worldwide and expanding geographically,” Snyk CEO Peter McKay (pictured) said in a statement.

[Related: Security Startup Snyk Debuts Partner Program To Win Larger Customers]

Snyk was founded in 2015, has raised $470 million in outside funding and employs 505 people, up 59 percent from 318 employees from just a year ago, according to LinkedIn. The Series E funding comes just six months after Snyk closed a $200 million Series D round led by Addition and 14 months after the company closed a $150 million Series C round led by Stripes.

The company plans to partner with new investors Temasek and Geodesic Capital to help expand its footprint into Asia-Pacific and Japan, Sync founder and President Guy Podjarny wrote in a blog post. Eighty-seven percent of Asia-Pacific companies will be well ahead on their digital transformation journey in the next two years, and those companies ignore DevSecOps at their own peril, Podjarny said.

“With the strongest growth for developers expected in Asia-Pacific over the next decade, Snyk collectively recognizes that there has never been a better time for us to serve this market,” Podjarny wrote in the blog post.

Snyk also plans to use the money to build security more into the fabric of software development through partnerships with developer-first companies such as Atlassian, Datadog, Docker, Dynatrace and Red Hat, Podjarny said. The company also will continue to invest in the open-source and broader developer ecosystem, according to Podjarny.

“We believe Snyk’s developer-first approach to security is a fantastic tool for developers and organizations today,” Atlassian’s head of corporate development, Chris Hecht, said in a statement. “Snyk has already showcased some amazing integrations with our tools, and we’re now thrilled to extend our partnership with them through an Atlassian Ventures investment.”

In addition to McLagan, Snyk has brought on former Elastic global marketing head Jeff Yoshimura to serve as the company’s chief marketing and customer experience officer, where he will lead the community, marketing, customer success and services teams to ensure a fully integrated, customer-centric experience.

Snyk also hired former Groupon engineering, IT and operations veteran Erica Geil to serve as the company’s chief information officer, where she is tasked with creating a united technical and security vision. And from a board perspective, Snyk is adding current Snowflake and former ServiceNow CFO Michael Scarpelli as well as Accel Partner Ping Li as directors.

More than 700 paying customers have adopted Sync’s Cloud Native Application Security platform to safeguard everything from their open-source code to containers and cloud infrastructure, Podjarny said. The company works with a number of high-profile solution providers including Optiv, GuidePoint Security, Trace3, Presidio, Nexum, Sirius, Fishtech and Ahead, according to Snyk’s website.