Astaro Raises $6.7 Million In Second Round Venture Funding
BURLINGTON, Mass. ‘ May 17, 2004 ‘ Astaro Corp., developers of the most popular Open Source-based security product, today announced it has raised a Series B round of $6.7 million from co-investors Insight Venture Partners of New York and Wellington Partners of Munich, Germany. The same group of investors co-led the company’s Series A round of $6.2 million in May 2003, bringing the total amount raised to date to $12.9 million.
Funding will be used to further accelerate the rapid adoption of Astaro’s all-in-one network security solution, which combines rock-solid firewall protection with a VPN gateway, anti virus protection, and other critical security features, within the enterprise market; to leverage and extend the global Channel Partner program, and to apply customer-driven product enhancements.
‘Over the past 12 months we tripled our revenues,’ said Jan Hichert, Astaro CEO and co-founder. ‘Customers are seeing the value and cost advantages of running a comprehensive Linux-based network security solution. Our next step calls for carrying this momentum further out into the more profitable and larger scale enterprise sector.’
‘Astaro’s market penetration has been phenomenal. Since its founding in January 2000 it has grown to the point that it now protects some 20,000 networks,’ said Frank Boehnke, partner, Wellington Partners. ‘You can’t argue with success. Linux is clearly here to stay and Astaro is clearly the leader in the network security space. They are the most popular solution out there, namely because their product offers the security and the features companies want, it’s easy to support and at a fraction of the cost of purely proprietary systems.’
Astaro’s existing Board of Directors consists of Stanley Krasnow, formerly with IBM; Dr. Peter Levin, formerly with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Michael Triplett from Insight Venture Partners; and Patrick Meininger from Wellington Partners.
In March, Astaro rolled out Version 5 of its flagship product Astaro Security Linux, a network security solution that combines firewall protection with a VPN Gateway, Anti Virus protection, and other advanced security features. Astaro Security Linux protects more than 20,000 networks in over 60 countries. Additionally, Version 5 includes Intrusion Protection capabilities that protect networks against complex attacks, and added Virus Protection for HTTP and FTP.
About Wellington Partners
Formed in 1991, Wellington Partners invests venture capital in young start-ups throughout Europe in the fields of information and communication technology and life science and numbers among Europe’s most successful early-stage financiers. The Munich-based company today manages a total fund volume of 265 million, with 85 million of this funding available for new investments. Wellington Partners is presently invested in over 20 companies and has accompanied technology vendors such as chip broker ACG and biotech player Actelion in going public. http://www.wellington.de.
About Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners, with approximately $1 billions in funds under management, is the leading venture capital firm specializing in enterprise software companies. Insight invests in entrepreneurial companies developing technology-based solutions for the corporate enterprise. Headquartered in New York, Insight has taken a global approach to e-commerce investing in a market where speed, domain expertise, and the ability to execute are the foundations of success. http://www.insightpartners.com.
About Astaro
Astaro is the developer of Astaro Security Linux, a comprehensive network security product for midsized to large businesses. It combines a firewall, VPN gateway, intrusion protection, virus protection, spam protection and surf protection (URL filtering). This complete software solution bundles a hardened Linux operating system that can run on any x86-compatible hardware, and is also available as a pre-installed appliance solution. Astaro’s software has won numerous awards, and is in use on over 20,000 networks in 60 countries. Astaro Security Linux is distributed by a worldwide network of solutions partners who offer local support and services. http://www.astaro.com