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Cylance Announces $15M in Funding

2013-02-13
IRVINE, CA, Global cybersecurity products and services company dedicated to solving large and complex security challenges, today announced $15 million in funding.
Cylance, Inc., a global cybersecurity products and services company dedicated to solving large and complex security challenges, today announced $15 million in funding from recognized leaders in the venture community: Khosla Ventures and Fairhaven Capital. Additionally, Cylance is announcing its board members and board of advisors, made up of a very dedicated team of industry leaders, with backgrounds in government, military, critical infrastructure and private sector. These board members will be collaborating to advance Cylance's mission to protect customers from advanced threats in an era when today's network and operations infrastructure is often protected by flawed security.

"There is no better time than now to change the paradigm in security; today's solutions are no longer effective against advanced threat groups. Cylance knows how to solve this problem at its core, and we intend to help them deliver on their inimitable vision," said Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures and long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur. "Cylance's executive pedigree has seen it all in the security world. We are confident in their talent and mission to address the industry's failures as well as protect and empower the world through its products, services and research."

The $15 million investment will accelerate delivery of Cylance's vision of protecting and empowering people and their devices from advanced attacks through products, services and algorithmic security.

"If you can secure the very fabric of our society and economy -- critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) -- you can secure anything," said Mark Hatfield, Partner at Fairhaven Capital. "The security industry is ready for an overhaul and Cylance has the vision, strategy and talent to lead the way."

"Critical infrastructure and key resources are not just oil and gas pipelines and power plants. It is finance, banking, telecommunication, healthcare and many more that are the very heart of our economy," said Stuart McClure, CEO/President of Cylance. "I could not be more honored to have Khosla Ventures and Fairhaven Capital's support in our endeavors. As a serial entrepreneur, Vinod understands what it takes to be successful, and as a long time investor in security startups, Fairhaven has become a well-respected security investor. We could not have asked for a stronger team from which to springboard our mission."

In addition to announcing funding, Cylance introduces its new Board of Directors including Patrick Heim, former Kaiser Permanente CSO and now Chief Trust Officer at Salesforce.com, Admiral William J. Fallon, U.S. Navy (Retired) former Commander, U.S. Central and U.S. Pacific Commands, and Alex Doll, former co-founder and COO of PGP who sold to Symantec in 2010, who will guide the Company to achieve its goals. With this Board pedigree, Cylance has a deep and diverse team to help guide the Company.

"As a long time driver and investor in security, we've seen visions come and go but Cylance has a truly pioneering plan," said Alex Doll, Board Member, Cylance.

"I've seen breaches of security firsthand around the world and the biggest issue has been the failure to secure networks," said Admiral Fallon, Board Member, Cylance. "Cylance offers clients unrivaled security solutions that will tip the balance of the cyber battlefield. The Company's deep and talented technical bench and strong executive leadership position it well for success."

Additionally, Cylance has established a Board of Advisors that brings together a diverse group of experts to solve the complex security problems that the industry currently faces. Advisors include: Paul Forney (Invensys), David Willson (Army/NSA), Shane Shook (KPMG/PwC), Robert Bigman (CIA), Stewart Baker (Steptoe/NSA), Alex Nazaruk (GetCo), Michael Rauchman (GetCo), Eric Culp (formerly of ESRI), and Joseph Gabbert (formerly of McAfee and EMC).

About Cylance, Inc.

Cylance, Inc. is a global provider of cybersecurity products and services that is changing the way companies, governments and end users proactively solve the world's most difficult security problems. Through a holistic security process called Presponse™, a philosophical, practical and cyclical approach, Cylance couples the understanding of a hacker's mentality with algorithmic intelligence and technology to be truly predictive and preventive against advanced threats. Powered by a global user community and an elite team of security experts, Cylance is solving very large and complex problems simply and elegantly. For more information, visit www.cylance.com.

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 security, 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 co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, Calif. More information is available at www.khoslaventures.com.

About Fairhaven Capital Partners.

Based in Cambridge's Kendall Square, 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. The Fairhaven team is focused on themes in the enterprise, physical technologies, media infrastructure and security markets. For more information, visit www.fairhavencapital.com.
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