Cybersecurity Firm Coro Eyeing ‘Very Aggressive’ Channel Expansion

The New York-based cybersecurity vendor plans to spend much of its new $60 million funding round on building its in-house channel team and eventually boost channel sales to 50 percent of its total revenue.

Coro is planning a “very aggressive” expansion of its channel team to help boost sales of its “all-in-one” cybersecurity product aimed at mid-sized companies.

The New York-based cybersecurity vendor earlier this week announced a $60 million Series C round of financing led by U.K.-based Balderton Capital, bringing the total to $80 million that Coro has raised over the past six months.

Dror Liwer, a co-founder and CMO of Coro, said the firm intends to spend a sizeable chunk of that $80 million on beefing up its in-house channel sales team based in Chicago. The firm is eyeing a five-fold increase in its channel team from six to 30 people within the next 24 months, he said.

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Coro will also provide extensive training and incentives for channel partners as it attempts to turbocharge sales of its cybersecurity platform, which Coro claims is more streamlined and affordable than other security products offered to midmarket and small companies.

“We are going to be very, very channel friendly,” said Liwer, adding Coro will be “very aggressive” in courting and working with MSPs and master agents to boost sales of its platform.

Until last year, Coro, which was founded in 2014, was 100 percent dependent on direct sales. But last year Coro started a small channel team – and now plans to expand that team through 2023.

Currently, the channel represents about 20 percent of Coro’s revenues and the firm hopes it will eventually grow to about 50 percent, a company spokeswoman said.

Unlike other security products that focus on very specific cyber threats, Coro claims its platform provides all the security needed for mid-sized businesses to protect their users, devices, email, data and cloud applications.

The Coro platform also uses AI to offload 98 percent of the security workload from IT onto Coro automation, the company says.

“We have one product that does everything,” said Liwer. “It’s all in one.”

In the past, adequate security for mid-sized and small companies has been too expensive, too complex and required too many IT people for medium- and small-sized companies to operate, Liwer said.

Using rival security solutions on the market, companies can spend an aggregate $45 to $115 per user per month for their overall security needs, said Liwer.

But Coro’s platform is offered as a monthly subscription for only $7 per user per month, he said.

“It’s a completely new model,” Liwer said of Coro’s monthly subscription charges.

Currently, Coro, which was originally founded in Israel in 2014, has more than 2 million users at 4,000 companies on its platform. Coro’s “sweet spot” is serving companies with about 500 employees, Liwer said.

Though Coro wouldn’t disclose specific revenue numbers, the privately held company said in a press release that it has achieved 300 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the past three years.

Dan Pirigyi, a partner at Telecom Consulting Group (TCG), a Florida-based master agent, said he’s optimistic Coro’s product will prove attractive to midmarket and smaller businesses now struggling to find adequate and affordable security.

“Coro has a really unique and refreshing product,” said Pirigyi, whose company signed on as a Coro distributor a few weeks ago. “The time is right for this type of product. With so many threats out there, sooner or later a mid-size company is going to get hit if they don’t protect themselves.”

As a technology services distributor, Pirigyi said his company is a “major component of the channel” and in the position to potentially influence thousands of MSPs, IT chiefs and other players in the cybersecurity market.

Rana Yared, a general partner at Balderton Capital, said his venture firm was impressed with Coro’s potential to appeal to mid-market companies.

“Coro is poised to dominate this immense and hugely underserved segment of the market, and we believe that their growth will continue at an exponential rate,” Yared said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Coro’s innovative team.”