Cybersecurity pioneer VMRay extends Series B investment to a total of $34 million USD to drive growth into new markets

December 19, 2022

VMRay, a global player in advanced threat detection and analysis that offers solutions for enterprises, governmental organizations, and MDRs to detect and analyze the most challenging malware and phishing threats, announces the closing of a Series B led by global alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital, through its subsidiary Tikehau Ace Capital and its European Cybersecurity Growth fund alongside new investors NRW.BANK and Gründerfonds Ruhr. Previous investors eCAPITAL and High-Tech Gründerfonds also participated in the round. The new investment will fuel further expansion of the product portfolio to target a broader set of market segments.

Bochum, December 19^th, 2022– VMRay was founded to overcome a big vulnerability in cybersecurity: new, unknown, and sophisticated threats and targeted attacks. The company started its journey by developing a unique, hypervisor-based approach to sandboxing, and kept adding cutting-edge technologies, including its own Machine Learning models, to address emerging and evolving challenges. The solutions aim at improving the efficiency of SOC teams with accurate verdicts, noise-free output, and seamless integrations with major EDR, XDR, SOAR, and Threat Intelligence Platform vendors. The company is now working with 4 of the world’s top 5 technology companies, 37 leading financial institutions and 56 governmental organizations around the world.

The cyber threat landscape is going through a profound change, and with the increasing volume and complexity of new threats, our customers face new challenges. The latest investment has been a collaboration with a strategic scope, enabling VMRay to make its product suitable for a wider range of market segments and use cases including threat intelligence, security automation and MSSPs.

Dr. Carsten Willems, co-founder and CEO of VMRay

In our role as cybersecurity-focused experts, we were impressed with VMRay’s unique value proposition: building more effective detection tools integrated or interfaced with larger cybersecurity solutions. VMRay’s ability to automate detection is a clear differentiator, positioning it as the tip of the spear in the global effort to elevate cybersecurity standards globally. We firmly believe the company will sustain scalable, explosive growth in the coming years, driven by skilled leadership and powerful market tailwinds.

Augustin Blanchard, Executive Director at Tikehau Capital

VMRay has managed to uniquely position themselves in the market, complementing existing solutions as the extra layer of security that is needed to combat advanced and unknown threats. Having built a strong foundation for further international growth, the company is set to become the global leader in advanced threat detection, and we are excited to support the VMRay team in the years to come.

Dr. Ulrich Schmitt, Principal at High-Tech Gründerfonds

We’re delighted to be partnering with a syndicate of top investors to continue fueling VMRay’s success and support the company’s experienced management team in driving growth.

Willi Mannheims, Managing Partner at eCAPITAL

About VMRay
At VMRay, our purpose is to liberate the world from undetectable digital threats. Led by reputable cyber security pioneers, we develop best-of-breed technologies to detect and analyze unknown threats that others miss. Thus, we empower organizations to augment and automate security operations by providing the world’s best threat detection and analysis platform. We help organizations build and grow their products, services, operations, and relationships on secure ground that allows them to focus on what matters with ultimate peace of mind. This, for us, is the foundation stone of digital transformation.
www.vmray.com

Press Contact
Fatih Cam: fcam@vmray.com

About Tikehau Ace Capital
Tikehau Ace Capital, a subsidiary of Tikehau Capital, is a private equity firm specialised in strategic industries and technologies, with more than €1 billion in assets under management. Founded in 2000, Tikehau Ace Capital invests through sector-focused approaches such as strategic industries (Aerospace, Defense, etc.), cybersecurity, and digital trust. Tikehau Ace Capital has built its model on strategic partnerships with large corporates (including Airbus, Safran, Dassault Aviation, Thales, EDF, Naval Group, and Sopra Steria), which invest in its funds and maintain an ongoing dialogue with the firm, enabling Tikehau Ace Capital to take a differentiated approach to investing.

Tikehau Ace operates offices in Paris, Toulouse and Madrid and benefits from the worldwide presence of Tikehau Capital.
www.tikehau-ace.capital

Press Contact
Tikehau Ace Capital
Audrey Hood,
T.: +33 6 15 08 25 68,
ahood@tikehau-ace.capital

About eCAPITAL
Founded in 1999, eCAPITAL is an entrepreneur-led venture capital investor focusing on early- and growth-stage deep-tech companies with a positive impact on society. eCAPITAL is based in Germany and invests with its own funds with a total volume of over € 340 million in the areas of Sustainability, Enterprise Software, Cybersecurity, IoT and New Materials. In addition to financial resources, eCAPITAL offers its portfolio companies strategic support and access to an international network of entrepreneurs, scientists, investors and founders and was lead investor in various deep-tech companies such as sonnen, Novaled or Jedox, which were sold very successfully to international strategists or investors.
Learn more at www.ecapital.vc

About Gründerfonds Ruhr
Gründerfonds Ruhr is a private venture capital fund driving innovation in the Ruhr area by investing in new technologies impacting a broad range of industries. We deploy the capital, the business expertise and the industry access from leading international corporations who share our goal of building Ruhr-based start-ups with transforming ideas. Our objective is to be the institutional investor of choice for founders and become a trusted partner with the resources to catapult young companies to their next stage of development and commercial success. Our long-term vision is to thereby boost entrepreneurial spirit in our region.
https://gruenderfonds-ruhr.com/

About NRW.Venture
NRW.Venture is the venture fund of NRW.BANK. The promotional bank for North Rhine-Westphalia uses it to support innovative and technology-driven start-ups that have a specific connection to North Rhine-Westphalia in developing, marketing and swiftly expanding their business model. The aim is to make North Rhine-Westphalia the number one federal state for innovation. Having operated in the market for over 15 years, the fund – together with private-sector investors – invests up to ten million euros of equity over several financing rounds. The NRW.Venture team is composed of 16 experts, some of whom have more than 20 years of VC experience. NRW.Venture has a total volume of 250 million euros.
https://www.nrwbank.de/venture

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported over 680 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has over 1.3 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected more than 4 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,900 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies.

Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft along with over 40 companies from a wide range of industries.

Press Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Stefanie Grüter, Partner Communications & Relations
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 188
s.grueter@htgf.de

Investor Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Ulrich Schmitt
Principal / Authorized Signatory
T.: +49 – (0)228 – 82300 – 147
u.schmitt@htgf.de