By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – Axonius has raised $200 million from investors led by venture capital firm Accel at a valuation of $2.6 billion, in what the cybersecurity startup says could be its last funding before a public listing.
The latest financing comes about a year after Axonius raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Silver Lake Partners and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the latest round.
In an interview with Reuters, Axonius Chief Executive Dean Sysman said the company could be ready for an initial public offering within two years, but declined to share an exact time frame.
“The reason we did this funding round was more than anything starting to execute as a future public company and bringing on board to the cap table the investors that see things that way and help us to transform on that milestone,” said Sysman, who cofounded the company in 2017.
New York-based Axonius provides a cybersecurity asset management platform that helps companies analyze information technology assets, from devices to services, to identify potential security risks.
As companies across the world switched to remote working during the pandemic, they ramped up spending on cybersecurity solutions, benefiting companies like Axonius.
Axonius said its annual recurring revenue, a closely watched metric for enterprise software companies, has tripled in the past three consecutive years, as more companies started using its cybersecurity offerings.
Its prominent clients include Schneider Electric and Anheuser-Busch InBev.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in Beijing; Editing by Matthew Lewis)