On Tuesday, Vade, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm that uses artificial intelligence to develop threat detection and response technology for enterprise and general consumer clients, announced that it has secured a major funding round from high-level French backers.
The EUR 28 million (around $30 million) round was led by Tikehau Ace Capital, a French private equity firm that targets aerospace, defense and technology investments, along with the Government of France, investing through French Tech Souveraineté, which is part of the France 2030 initiative, led by the General Secretariat for Investment and operated by France’s public investment bank Bpifrance, and French early-stage venture capital fund Auriga Partners.
“We invested in Vade because we believe that Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) need to have technology that can easily and effectively neutralize the latest threats,” said Tikehau Acep Capital Executive Director Francois Lavaste, in a comment on the investment. “We welcome the sustained pace at which Vade continues to grow and have full confidence in Georges Lotigier and his team. We are confident in their ability to meet and exceed their clients’ expectations.”
Vade says the latest round of funding will further accelerate its international expansion and provide additional investment to enhance its already industry leading cybersecurity products for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), MSPs and small and medium businesses. Vade says it plans to announce a new, more substantial round of financing in the coming months.
“Demand for our products, especially in the MSP market, has been overwhelming. This latest round of funding will help us quickly onboard more channel partners in key markets like North America and Europe,” said Vade Chief Revenue Officer Maya Gershon.
Vade’s flagship product, Vade for M365, is an email security product purpose-built for MSP’s, which the company says has experienced over 100 percent growth. The company’s technology currently serves more than 1 billion corporate and consumer inboxes.
“Vade has experienced tremendous growth and with remote work becoming commonplace, even after the pandemic, cybersecurity is at the top of most companies’ priority list,” said Georges Lotigier, CEO of Vade. “We have built a highly profitable company in a competitive market, largely due to our constant innovation and anticipating the unexpected. This latest funding round will help us realize our ambitious plans to significantly grow in markets like North America and Asia.”
“The fight against cyber threats is a strong strategic challenge that Vade has mastered. This operation must now allow to accelerate the protection of companies and citizens, increasingly targeted in the current context. This is why Bpifrance supports this operation,” said Bpifrance CEO Emmanuel Audouard.
The French government’s investment is being carried out under the auspices of the France 2030 plan to sustainably transform key sectors of the French economy (energy, automotive, aeronautics and space) through technological innovation, and to position France for innovation leadership. The program has been funded with EUR 54 billion, with a mandate to support the entire life cycle of innovative industries up to commercialization. The program is led by the General Secretariat for Investment on behalf of the Prime Minister and implemented by the Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), the National Research Agency (ANR), the Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance) and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC).