SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwired) — 04/21/16 — today announced $8 million in Series A funding. General Catalyst Partners led the round with participation from well-known security leaders and innovators, including Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh Loonkar, the founders of Trusteer, and Paul Sagan, the former CEO of Akamai Technologies. The financing will be used to expand marketing and sales efforts, and accelerate product development. Additionally, the company appointed Heather Howland as vice president of marketing.
“Preempt provides a simple yet effective breach detection and response product that doesn–t stretch already extended security teams. Preempt has developed a unique approach to people-centric security that goes beyond today–s user behavior analysis tools, and I–m confident in the company–s ability to deliver an exciting new solution. I–m very excited about the company sharing even more as we emerge from stealth shortly,” said Steve Herrod, managing director at General Catalyst and former CTO of VMware.
The company also announced the appointment of Heather Howland to vice president of marketing, where she will be responsible for building the company–s go to market plan and global marketing strategy to further establish the company in the enterprise. She brings over 20 years of experience in enterprise technology marketing and marketing leadership. Prior to joining Preempt, Howland was vice president of marketing for Lacoon Mobile Security, where she helped position the company for a successful acquisition by Check Point Software Technologies in 2015. Previously, she led worldwide digital strategy for the IBM Security Division IBM and held senior marketing positions at Q1 Labs, BlackBerry and Ascendent Systems.
“The financial endorsement from Steve and an impressive set of successful entrepreneurs and leaders, together with the ability to land Heather as our new vice president of marketing, speaks volumes to Preempt–s potential,” stated Ajit Sancheti, founder and CEO of Preempt. “User behavior analysis is a starting point, not a destination. Effective security for enterprises requires eliminating threats, in addition to effective detection. Not only do we have the technical know-how to deliver a disruptive, industry-first product, we have the right team in place to propel us forward, challenging the status quo and enabling us to combat today–s most advanced security threats.”
Preempt Security was founded in 2014 by global security and networking experts. The team has deep roots in security with a large component of the team from Unit 8200, the elite intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. In addition, members of the team were instrumental in defining the first commercial Intrusion Prevention System, which led to the creation of the Unified Threat Management segment of gateway security products. The Preempt team leverages its experience to build industry first technology to help enterprises combat malicious breaches and insider threats. Preempt is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with offices in Ramat Gan, Israel. Learn more at .
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage and transformational investments. The firm backs exceptional entrepreneurs who are building innovative technology companies and market-leading businesses, including Airbnb, BigCommerce, ClassPass, Datalogix, Datto, Demandware, Gusto (fka ZenPayroll), The Honest Company, HubSpot, KAYAK, Oscar, Snapchat, Stripe, and Warby Parker. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA, Palo Alto, CA, and New York City. For more information, visit: or .
Jim Dvorak
Kulesa Faul for Preempt Security
(415) 735-1622
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