For half a century, Kleiner Perkins has stood at the forefront of the venture capital industry, partnering with visionary founders to create some of the most enduring companies of the past and present. Today, Kleiner Perkins continues its legacy by investing in bold entrepreneurs who have game-changing ideas that span multiple industries and geographies. Investing far more than just capital, they partner with companies from inception to IPO and beyond, collaborating closely with founders to realize the full potential of their vision. This firm, based in Menlo Park (California), is included in our list of software venture capital investors.
Over the years, Kleiner Perkins has demonstrated a full commitment to the cybersecurity market, investing in groundbreaking companies facing growing digital threats. Their notable investments include ArcSight and Huntress, two companies that have created next-generation security solutions tailored for both large enterprises and SMBs, to help protect our connected world from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. These investments not only embody Kleiner Perkins’ strategic vision but also underscore their pivotal role in shaping the future of corporate security.
The ArcSight Case
Perhaps one of the most emblematic examples of how Kleiner Perkins nurtured the early development of game-changing companies is in the story of ArcSight. Back in the early 2000s, as the digital landscape grew exponentially, so too did the cyber threats to it. The early investor in ArcSight, Robert Shaw was familiar with Kleiner Perkins and sought the firm out for an investment into the company. ArcSight had developed a threat management system that could collect and analyze a load of security data to help companies identify and prioritize their most critical threats. This also helped in easy incident response and compliance,becoming an essential tool in the economy where connectivity was bringing an increased risk of cyber-attacks.
In 2002, Kleiner Perkins invested in ArcSight, alongside In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. ArcSight operated in a crowded and rapidly expanding marketplace for SIEM firms. However, its partial success was rooted in both the vision of its founding CTO Hugh Njemanze, who spearheaded the development of sophisticated technology, and Robert Shaw, who drove the company to pay attention to large customers in key sectors, such as retail and financial services
ArcSight went public in 2008, the only Silicon Valley company listed on NASDAQ that year, amidst the global recession. Two years later, in September 2010, ArcSight was bought out by Hewlett-Packard for approximately $1.5 billion, confirming relevance and value in a more cybersecurity-conscious world
Strategic Vision in Cybersecurity
Experience illustrates that Kleiner Perkins, with ArcSight, represents the perfect example of its commitment to turn innovative ideas into companies whose reverberation will be felt all over the world. In technology, healthcare, fintech, and artificial intelligence, Kleiner Perkins is at the side of founders dead-set on leaving their mark and determinedly works on forging a new future, one startup at a time.
Kleiner Perkins has long believed that cybersecurity would be the growth area in an increasingly digital world. The investment in ArcSight represented only one dimension of their broad strategic focus. Indeed, over the years, Kleiner Perkins has supported scores of cybersecurity startups, encouraging the development of novel software solutions to counter the growing menace in cyberspace. It is not only a question of market capitalization; it is about building companies whose tools are of vital importance for the protection of valuable information, neutralizing attacks, and business continuity. In partnership with visionary founders and through their prescience with regards to emerging security needs, Kleiner Perkins has put together a portfolio of companies that are changing the cybersecurity landscape and making technological progress in a safer environment.
Recent Investment Highlight: Huntress
In June 2024, Kleiner Perkins, alongside Meritech and Sapphire, co-led the Series D funding for Huntress in pursuit of one of the biggest pain points in today’s cybersecurity space: keeping small and medium businesses safe. Traditionally, cybersecurity had been very much an issue for large enterprises: they were the most lucrative target for cybercriminals. With large organizations scaling up their security investments, the attackers shifted their focus to the remaining 99% of organizations that cannot afford the costly security solutions.
The enterprises that include hospitals, schools, and stores are the backbone of communities and they are under an increasing cyberattack assault. Unfortunately, the very best security solutions have been designed to serve large enterprises; smaller business organizations, such as SMBs and MSPs, have had to stand against a barrage of modern-day threats without the benefits of reasonably-priced, yet first-quality means to defend themselvs.
Founded by former NSA cyber operators, Huntress had but one goal: make it a losing fight for hackers. The team developed a managed security platform that combines cutting-edge software with a 24/7 team of human threat hunters to monitor attack surfaces, detect vulnerabilities and exploits, and protect infrastructure against cyber threats. Its flagship product, Managed EDR, gives advanced detection and response via a lightweight agent that is very easy to install and integrates well with other tools. Over the last several years, it has grown to include Security & Awareness Training and more recently MDR for Microsoft 365 products, with even more innovative solutions currently in development-all specifically for SMBs and their MSP partners
Image source: Paul Hanaoka
