Disrupting the legacy firewall market, Guardicore’s software-only approach provides cybersecurity solutions to cover clients’ endpoints, data centers and the cloud. Its mission is to minimize the effects of high-impact breaches by protecting clients’ critical assets.

Background:

Battery led Guardicore’s series A financing in 2014. At the time, the company had no product and only five employees working in a basement-level office. However, Battery had a deep belief in Guardicore’s founders–Pavel Gurvich, Ariel Zeitlin and Dror Sal’ee—all exceptional technologists who had previously worked in elite units within the Israel Defense Forces. Battery originally was introduced to the company through the founders of Anobit*, a former Battery portfolio company.

Guardicore founders (from left) Ariel Zeitlin and Pavel Gurvich, and Battery General Partner Scott Tobin.

Battery was also convinced, through its extensive research in the field, that trends like virtualization and cloud networking would have a profound effect on traditional network-security architectures, in effect making traditional firewalls obsolete—or at least much less effective. From the very first meeting with the company’s small team, Battery felt conviction to invest, despite the fact that there was a strong incumbent, VMWare, already in the market, as well as other startup competitors. The deal was led by our team on the ground in Israel with help from Partner Alex Benik in Boston.

The Battery Impact:

Battery wound up supporting Guardicore from its Series A though its Series C. Specifically, Battery:

• Consulted on the company’s go-to-market messaging and buyer persona and introduced Guardicore to more than 50 potential customers and partners. Battery was also helpful at a high level with strategic partnerships, including with VMWare.
• Helped drive team building, including recruiting Chief Marketing Officer Dave Burton.
• Showcased Guardicore’s cybersecurity thought-leader in at Battery events
• Provided counsel and tactical help around marketing and PR.
• Leveraged Battery’s longstanding relationship with Akamai Technologies* before and during the sale process.

Outcome:

In September 2021, Akamai announced its acquisition of Guardicore.