Cylance, the first math-based threat detection and prevention company, today announced it has closed $20 million in Series B funding, supported by Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, Fairhaven Capital and a group of private investors. The funding will help Cylance accelerate its artificial intelligence platform and go-to-market strategy in the advanced endpoint threat detection and prevention market.

'Cylance has long held the belief that security isn't rocket science, it just needs to be incredibly effective and silent - and applying math is the secret,' said Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance. 'The hacking abilities of malicious actors have far outpaced the capacity of the human defender. It's time for the old security models to fade out and bring in the new. We don't ever have to trust the vendor anymore to determine whether something is safe or not, we can just 'trust the math'.'

'Attacks keep evolving, bypassing all kinds of traditional security technologies,' said Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst, IT-Harvest. 'The market is ripe for a revolutionary new solution to securing the endpoint; Cylance's approach is the most exciting innovation in endpoint security I have seen to date.'

Cylance's fundamentally new approach, delivered through its Infinity Platform, continually evolves, learning how to detect new and evolving threats through a mathematical and algorithmic process much like the human brain. 'It's like having an expert security professional in your computer at every decision making point,' said Jay Leek, CISO for Blackstone. 'The endpoint CylancePROTECT and network CylanceV product lines detect and block the execution of both advanced and mundane threats in real-time.'

'Cylance protects the endpoint without constant updates or performance-laden layers of defense,' added Glenn Chisholm, CTO of Cylance. 'We attack the problem at its source - execution - and determine maliciousness without ever having to see the attack before, truly future-proofing the world's detection capabilities.'

About Cylance

Cylance is the first company to apply artificial intelligence, algorithmic science and machine learning to cyber security and improve the way companies, governments and end users proactively solve the world's most difficult security problems. Using a breakthrough mathematical process, Cylance quickly and accurately identifies what is safe and what is a threat, not just what is in a blacklist or whitelist. By coupling sophisticated math and machine learning with a unique understanding of a hacker's mentality, Cylance provides the technology and services to be truly predictive and preventive against advanced threats. www.cylance.com

About Blackstone

Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment and advisory firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, the companies we advise and the broader global economy. We do this through the commitment of our extraordinary people and flexible capital. Our asset management businesses include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, hedge fund solutions, non-investment grade credit, secondary funds, and multi asset class exposures falling outside of other funds' mandates. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

About Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs. The firm helps entrepreneurs extend the potential of their ideas in breakthrough technologies in clean energy, mobile, IT, cloud, big data, storage, health, food, agriculture and semiconductors. Vinod Khosla founded the firm in 2004 and was formerly a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins and founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California. More information is available at http://www.khoslaventures.com.

About Fairhaven Capital

Fairhaven Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to a thesis-based approach to investing in North American technology companies. This approach focuses investment efforts on markets where emerging companies and technologies can create significant value. www.fairhavencapital.com