The cybersecurity vendor is planning to extend its zero trust security platform to provide enhanced protections for AI- and agentic-related risks, while also forming the basis for future international expansion, according to ThreatLocker CEO Danny Jenkins.
ThreatLocker announced Wednesday it has raised $190 million in a new round of funding to further extend its zero trust security platform and expand internationally.
The Series F round of funding will enable ThreatLocker to provide enhanced protections for AI- and agentic-related risks, while also forming the basis for future international expansion, the company said.
[Related: ThreatLocker Driving ‘Reimagined’ Zero Trust, Consolidation For MSPs: Partners]
In a recent interview with CRN, ThreatLocker Co-founder and CEO Danny Jenkins said that while AI-related risks are surging, the right approach is to double down on zero trust security.
In terms of providing strong defense against AI-driven threats and risk from insecure usage of LLMs, zero trust is “the only way this is going to happen,” Jenkins said. “If you do not do this at this point, you are going to lose this battle. You have to deploy zero trust.”
What follows are five key things to know about ThreatLocker’s new $190 million funding round.
Funding, Valuation Details
ThreatLocker’s new funding round was led by venture capital firm Elephant, which had previously backed the security vendor, and also included existing investors D. E. Shaw Ventures and Arthur Ventures. Meanwhile, venture firm Koch Disruptive Technologies joined the round as a new investor in ThreatLocker with a major contribution to the Series F round, according to the company.
ThreatLocker did not disclose its valuation in connection with the round, but said in an email to CRN that the company’s valuation “significantly grew” with the new funding as compared to its prior $1.6 billion valuation.
Product Expansion
The funding will be used to enable further development across ThreatLocker’s existing zero trust platform, including through delivering expanded protections against emerging AI security risks, ThreatLocker said in a news release. This includes protecting from risks linked to AI-powered tools as well as autonomous agents and AI-generated software, the company said.
Key ThreatLocker offerings that are applicable to AI security include Allowlisting, which can prevent unsanctioned AI applications and AI-generated code from executing, the company noted. Meanwhile, ThreatLocker’s Ringfencing technology can provide restrictions around the files and applications that approved AI tools and agents can access, according to ThreatLocker.
The ultimate goal, when seeking to protect against AI and agentic risk, is to “make sure that these agents—[which] potentially have the ability to make decisions about your data—can only see what they need to see,” Jenkins said in the recent CRN interview.
Network And Cloud Security
The new funding also comes after the major expansion of ThreatLocker’s platform into network and cloud security announced earlier this year. In March, the company debuted zero trust network access and zero trust cloud access offerings, bringing its “deny-by-default” approach to network environments, SaaS and mobile devices.
ThreatLocker’s zero trust cloud access technology is aimed at making compromised credentials ineffective by requiring access to come from both an authorized user and an approved device. Meanwhile, ThreatLocker’s ZTNA offering allows users to access internal resources without exposing ports to the internet or relying on a traditional VPN.
The expansion has been intended to bring the same model ThreatLocker has applied to endpoint security to a broader set of customer environments, Jenkins said.
Further International Growth
ThreatLocker said the new funding will also support continued expansion internationally, starting with a planned office in Reading, England. The U.K. location will be targeted at enhancing ThreatLocker’s ability to support partners and customers across the U.K. and Europe, the company said.
In addition to its headquarters in Orlando, Fla., ThreatLocker has also had an established operation in Dublin and has been expanding steadily to new regions. The vendor said it has added offices in Dubai and Brisbane, Australia, over the past 18 months. ThreatLocker said it now has more than 70,000 customers in addition to working with several thousand MSPs.
Differentiation, Consolidation Opportunities For MSPs
MSP executives have told CRN that the expansion of ThreatLocker’s zero trust security platform into new categories has created substantial opportunities for differentiation as well as product consolidation. “For us as MSPs, the more we can consolidate tools into one or two platforms, the better,” said Reagan Roney, CEO of Sterling, Va.-based Solvere One, in a previous interview. “And the more that we can make these tools zero trust-oriented, the better.”
And when it comes to ThreatLocker’s expansion into categories such as ZTNA, while many there are many existing vendors in the segment, ThreatLocker has taken an entirely “reimagined” approach to the concept, according to Brian Weiss, CEO and chief AI officer at Templeton, Calif.-based ITECH Solutions. ThreatLocker, on the other hand, is brokering network traffic rather than tunneling it through a VPN—which offers massive advantages for user experience and performance, according to the company.
“I feel like Danny flipped it on its head and said, ‘If we were going approach the idea of ZTNA from a fresh perspective, instead of trying to build it off of existing technology, how would we do it differently?’” Weiss told CRN previously.
