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OpenDNS Closes Series B

2013-03-27
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, leading provider of cloud-delivered Web security services announced a Series B financing with Sutter Hill Ventures.
OpenDNS, the world's leading provider of cloud-delivered Web security services, today announced the company has recruited Stefan Dyckerhoff, former Juniper Networks EVP and GM, to bring his exceptional understanding of the enterprise networking and security markets to its board of directors. The company also conducted a Series B financing with Sutter Hill Ventures that will be used to fuel growth in sales and marketing and expand security research and development.

The funding allows OpenDNS to quickly ramp its comprehensive go-to-market efforts after demonstrating rapid adoption of its cloud-delivered Web security product line Umbrella. Serving more than 7,000 businesses today, including some of the world's most trusted brands, OpenDNS is looking to aggressively scale its customer base and revenue in 2013 and beyond.

The announcement comes after a record-setting 2012 for OpenDNS. Last year the company opened a new data center in Hong Kong, launched the transformative Umbrella security service, formalized the innovative research team that now makes up Umbrella Security Labs, grew enterprise sales by more than 100% for the third year in a row, and added more than 3,500 new businesses as customers.

"OpenDNS has developed a high-performance global security network that is uniquely capable of securing off-network users across all their devices. It's no question that OpenDNS is the right company to disrupt the multi-billion dollar security market," said Dyckerhoff. "Delivering security-as-a-service is the only way to effectively empower IT in today's world of mobile devices, nomadic workers and cloud applications that require elasticity and unlimited performance. OpenDNS is already securing thousands of businesses and over 50 million end users with its powerful cloud platform."

As enterprises continue to shift away from the legacy approach of building firewalls around the corporate network, it is the ideal time for investment acceleration. Employees increasingly work outside of the office, use all kinds of new devices, and access cloud applications without ever connecting back to headquarters with a VPN. These critical changes in the way employees work have moved network traffic outside the enterprise security perimeter, and left IT without visibility, users unprotected, and devices unsecured.

Umbrella by OpenDNS is a completely cloud-delivered Web security solution that provides robust protection from advanced malware and botnet threats regardless of where users work or what device they use to connect to the Internet. Cloud-delivery is the only model for Web security that can effectively enable IT to extend malware protection and appropriate use filtering to users who take laptops and mobile devices off the network, and simultaneously give IT vital visibility and control.

OpenDNS is also planning to rapidly expand its Umbrella Security Labs research team, which applies the predictive discovery capabilities of the recently-released Umbrella Security Graph to the massive sets of data OpenDNS sees through processing 50 billion DNS queries every day.

"We've already built a world-class technological infrastructure, hired respected executives experienced in security and SaaS, and created disruptive products that solve security's visibility and efficacy problems," said David Ulevitch, OpenDNS Founder and CEO. "We've laid the foundation, and with Stefan's guidance and this round of funding we will quickly grow out our team, sharpen our products and packaging, and redouble efforts across all of sales and marketing."

Dyckerhoff joins Greylock Partner's David Strohm, Sequoia Capital's Michael Goguen and David Ulevitch on the company's board of directors.

About OpenDNS
OpenDNS is the world's leading provider of Internet security and DNS services, enabling the world to connect to the Internet with confidence on any device, anywhere, anytime. OpenDNS provides millions of businesses, schools and households with a safer, faster and more intelligent Internet experience by protecting them from malicious Web threats and providing them control over how users navigate the Internet, while dramatically increasing the network's overall performance and reliability. The company's cloud-delivered Umbrella security products protect enterprise users from malware, botnets and phishing regardless of location or device. At the heart of all OpenDNS services is the OpenDNS Global Network, the world's largest Internet-wide security network, securing 50 million active users daily through 13 data centers worldwide. For more information, please visit: http://www.opendns.com.

About Sutter Hill Ventures
Sutter Hill Ventures has financed technology-based start-ups and assisted entrepreneurs in building market-leading companies since 1962. Through decades of experience, the firm has developed strong industry networks, considerable operating and venture capital experience, and an understanding of the challenges that early-stage and high-growth companies face. The firm offers expertise in developing business strategy and partnerships, building management teams, and financing companies in both public and private markets.

Previous Sutter Hill Ventures portfolio companies include NVIDIA, NetApp, Data Domain, Alteon Networks, Youku, and others. Current companies in the SHV portfolio include Pure Storage, Sumo Logic, Platfora, Glassdoor, Ruckus Wireless, and others.
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