Palo Alto Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, has secured $27 million in Series C financing for its next-gen firewalls for enterprises.
Palo Alto Networks leverages its "App-ID" application classification technology to enable visibility and policy control of applications running on enterprise networks. The company's firewalls accurately identify applications -- regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic or even SSL encryption -- at 10Gbps with no performance degradation.
Lehman Brothers Venture Partners led the oversubscribed round, with participation from existing investors Globespan Capital Partners, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. The new funds will be used to support the company's rapid growth by further expanding sales, marketing and customer service initiatives.http://www.paloaltonetworks.com
- Palo Alto Networks was founded by Nir Zuk (CTO), Rajiv Batra (VP of Engineering) and Yuming Mao (Chief Architect). Zuk was previously CTO at NetScreen Technologies, which was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004. Prior to NetScreen, Nir was co-founder and CTO at OneSecure, a pioneer in intrusion prevention and detection appliances. Nir was also a principal engineer at Check Point Software Technologies and was one of the developers of stateful inspection technology.
Batra previously was the Vice President of Engineering at Peribit, which was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2005. He also co-founded VitalSigns Software and served as Vice President of Engineering at Bay Networks.
Mao previously was Chief Architect and a Distinguished Engineer at Juniper Networks, which he joined through the NetScreen Technologies acquisition. At NetScreen, he was one of the initial engineering architects - In July, Palo Alto Networks named Lane Bess as its new CEO. Bess previously served as Executive Vice President for Global Sales at Trend Micro. Earlier in his career, Bess held global sales and marketing leadership positions at NCR Corporation and AT&T Corporation. At AT&T, he was responsible for the launch of the AT&T's business and consumer internet services.
