Proofpoint Closes $28 Million Financing Round
DAG Ventures Joins Email Security and Data Loss Prevention Leader Proofpoint’s List of Blue-chip Investors
Sunnyvale, Calif. – February 27, 2008 – Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, today announced that the company has closed a $28 million financing round, led by new investor DAG Ventures. All previous investors — including Benchmark Capital; Bridgescale Partners, Inventures Group; JAFCO Ventures; Meritech Capital Partners; Mohr, Davidow Ventures and RRE Ventures — also participated in this round, bringing Proofpoint’s total raised capital to more than $86 million. The funds will be used to accelerate Proofpoint’s continued global expansion, customer acquisition and product development initiatives.
“Proofpoint’s singular focus on solving enterprise messaging problems, combined with outstanding technology, great customer support and exceptional sales and marketing execution has made it the leading independent vendor in the white-hot email security and data loss prevention market,” said Greg Williams, partner with DAG Ventures. “We’re excited to help fuel the next stage of Proofpoint’s growth.”
“Proofpoint has tripled its customer base since its last financing and is now poised to accelerate growth through rapid worldwide expansion,” said Gary Steele, president and CEO of Proofpoint, Inc. “This latest round of funding will help Proofpoint meet growing global demand for email and data security solutions, strengthen our distribution channels and bring even more innovative products to market.”
“Benchmark continues to be impressed by Proofpoint’s tremendous track record of technology innovation, commitment to customer satisfaction and demonstrated success in a fiercely competitive and dynamic space,” said Kevin Harvey, partner with Benchmark Capital. “Our increased investment in Proofpoint reflects our confidence in the company’s ability to become the dominant player in the multi-billion dollar messaging security market.”
Proofpoint is the email security and DLP solution of choice for a rapidly growing number of enterprises, universities and government organizations worldwide, helping them stop spam, protect against email viruses and prevent leaks of confidential information via email and other network protocols.
The company recently concluded its best year ever, growing revenue by more than 50% annually over 2006, fueled by new product introductions including the Proofpoint on Demand™ service, accelerating competitive displacements and an extraordinary customer renewal rate of more than 98%.
About DAG Ventures
DAG Ventures is a venture capital partnership investing in and helping outstanding entrepreneurs create leading, long-term companies across a range of markets. With roots from the 1980’s in cable TV, infrastructure, media, and wireless industries, the partnership today is privileged to work with world-class entrepreneurs as they build tomorrow’s leaders in the information technology, energy, and life science sectors. DAG Ventures invests in companies with proven technology, from the prototype stage onward.
About Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint provides unified email security and data loss prevention solutions for enterprises, universities, government organizations and ISPs to defend against inbound threats such as spam and viruses, prevent leaks of confidential and private information across all protocols, and encrypt sensitive emails. Proofpoint’s products are controlled by a single management and policy console and are powered by Proofpoint MLX™ technology, an advanced machine learning system developed by Proofpoint scientists and engineers. Proofpoint provides the most scalable and flexible deployment model including: hardware appliance, virtual appliance, hosted services and software. For more information, please visit http://www.proofpoint.com.
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Proofpoint, Proofpoint MLX, Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway and Proofpoint on Demand are trademarks, registered trademarks of Proofpoint, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
