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IoT Security Company Armis Raises $17 Million

Tel Aviv, Israel and Palo Alto, Calif.-based enterprise security company Armis has raised $17 million in venture funding. The company which launched in June and traces its origins back to the Israel Defense Force, says it will use the $5 million from Sequoia Capital and $12 million from Tenaya Capital to further its offerings set to address mounting security threats from the rapid adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

From popular smart phones to surveillance cameras, wireless printers and medical devices, Armis estimates 40% or more of organizations’ devices connected to corporate networks lack proper cyber protection and visibility.

“There’s a huge blind spot around Internet of Things security and visibility,” said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and co-founder of Armis. Dibrov met other co-founder and CTO Nadir Izrael while serving in the Israeli Defense Force’s Unit 8200, where a myriad of other security firms such as Check Point and Imperva, along with now Google-owned navigation app Waze were born.

Armis promises to use its agentless security solutions to detect and monitor IoT devices on enterprise networks, a booming niche that has been addressed by the expansion of “network access control” (NAC) technology from tech companies such as Cisco Systems and Forescout.

Izrael says the startup distinguishes itself from NAC, which vets devices prior to and after connecting to enterprise environments, by using its large database of device profiles to help companies identify with exactness what devices are attached to their network and how they typically behave. Further, the CTO says due to the massive number and variety of connected devices that come online per day, the lack of a need for software “agents” to be deployed on monitored devices is a bonus for its enterprise clients.

Armis reportedly has 50 U.S. deployments and 15 paying customers including Samsung Research America, Integrated Device Technology (IDT) and Gett.