WhiteSource raises $35M to mainstream open source security management
WhiteSource raised a $35 million funding round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation by existing investors 83North and M12 – Microsoft Ventures. This $35 million Series-C adds to the $11 million raised by WhiteSource in previous financing rounds.
Founded in 2011, WhiteSource was created with the mission to help businesses harness the power of open source without compromising on security or slowing development. With the latest funding, WhiteSource plans to double down on serving the enterprise market where leading customers such as Microsoft, IBM, Comcast and KPMG already leverage the WhiteSource platform.
Open source has become the main building block in modern applications, and it is almost impossible to develop software at today’s pace without it. However, as the open source community grows, and the number of reported vulnerabilities keeps climbing, manually verifying the security and compliance of open source components can no longer provide the necessary control over the security of these components.
“We are now at a stage where the question is not whether or not to use open source components, but how to put in place the solutions and policies to manage them well,” said Rami Sass, Co-Founder and CEO of WhiteSource.
“Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub for $7.5B showcases that companies have accepted open source as crucial to the software development process, but incidents such as the Equifax data breach underscore the necessity for all companies to protect their products from attacks that would exploit the open source components they are using.”
This reality is the fuel behind the growth of the Software Composition Analysis (SCA) market which automates open source components management. This market transitioned from early adopters to the early majority over the last 18 months and is now becoming mainstream. Serving more than 500 customers today, WhiteSource has established itself in the SCA space with the automated open source management platform.
WhiteSource continues to gain attention for its ability to think beyond the concepts of security and compliance and has delivered capabilities that answer the business needs of development and security teams alike, as it has proven with its latest offering, Effective Usage Analysis, which reduces open source vulnerabilities alerts by 70%.
“WhiteSource has established the standard for open source security solutions with its strong leadership and breakthrough innovation,” said Martin Angert, Director at Susquehanna Growth Equity. “We are excited to join WhiteSource on their journey to help businesses develop better software, faster.”
With offices in New York, Boston, and Tel Aviv, WhiteSource is planning to further expand its reach with the opening of sales, marketing and customer support operations in London and San Francisco as well as additional locations for global expansion.