Newport Beach software maker Obsidian Security Inc., launched in 2017 by two former Cylance Inc. executives and others, raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Wing.
Other backers include GV, formerly known as Google Ventures—the Mountain View-based venture arm of Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL)—and previous investor Greylock Partners in Menlo Park.
The company has now raised $30 million to date.
“The new funding amplifies ongoing hiring initiatives,” Chief Technology Officer Ben Johnson told the Business Journal after the latest funding deal, announced at the end of February.
Obsidian has 11 job openings listed on its site, including a mix of data and research scientists, engineers and software developers. It currently employs about 40 people at its headquarters just off Newport Center Drive.
It plans to introduce its first intelligent identity protection platform soon, which is designed to help companies monitor and secure their accounts.
“Many enterprises are unsure how many accounts they have, which permissions are associated with these accounts, and what users are doing with their privileges,” said Johnson, a co-founder at Waltham, Mass.-based cybersecurity firm Carbon Black Inc., who started Obsidian with former Cylance Chief Technology Officer Glenn Chisholm and Matt Wolff, who held the role of chief data scientist at the Irvine-based security software maker.
Cylance last month was acquired for $1.4 billion by BlackBerry Ltd. (NYSE: BB) in Canada.
Wolff and Johnson had crossed paths earlier in their careers at the National Security Agency. Other employees had stints at Amazon Web Services and VMware Inc.
As part of the Series B round, Wing founding partner Gaurav Garg joined Obsidian’s board.
Tweeting for Jobs
Palmer Luckey seems to love the Twittersphere—and employees of other Orange County-based tech firms.
The tech wunderkind, founder of Irvine-based Anduril Industries Inc., wasted little time in reaching out to recently laid-off staffers at Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
“Laid off from Blizzard? Want to work on important national security problems? Anduril is less than 10 minutes away, come say hi!” Luckey wrote in a Feb. 25 tweet.
The video game publisher plans to cut 209 positions at its Irvine operations by April 13, according to a recent filing with the state’s Employment Development Department. That amounts to about 10% of the operations for OC’s largest software company by employee count.
Luckey’s used the social media platform to advertise job openings, talk up national defense and provide hot takes on a variety of other subjects, from cosplay, a contraction of the words costume play, to virtual reality.
His latest venture, Anduril Industries, is one of Orange County’s most-watched startups. The defense and security-focused technology firm is prepping a move to its new digs at 2722 Michelson Drive, a 155,000-square-foot creative office building now in the final stages of being built by owner, Irvine-based LBA Realty LLC. It employs about 50 now, but lists a large number of openings.
Some of his tweets have rankled politicos and the tech sector, particularly his former employer Facebook Inc., which acquired his Irvine-based virtual reality firm Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion.
“Looks like I am the first person the @Oculus Twitter account has ever unfollowed. Where did I go wrong?” he tweeted Feb. 27, adding this keyboard emoji:
AI Powerhouse
Irvine-based analytics software maker Alteryx Inc. closed the books for 2018 on a high note.
The company grew revenue in the fourth quarter 57% year-over-year to $60.5 million. It posted an adjusted loss of $0.01, or $500,000, compared to an adjusted profit of $0.02, or $1.4 million, the same period a year earlier.
Both metrics topped Wall Street expectations.
It ended 2018 with 4,696 customers, up 38% year-over-year.
For the full year, Alteryx posted sales of about $204 million, up 55%.
Alteryx’s customers pay a subscription fee for its analytics software to integrate data, monetize content, forecast sales, map out retail expansion plans, and compare sales and product placement, among other features.
Alteryx (NYSE: AYX) has a market cap of about $4.5 billion. The shares hit an all-time high when its earnings were announced on Feb. 27, before taking a slight dip.
