Lookout Mobile Security nabs $150 million in funding

[AsAp]

As it prepares for a larger push beyond consumers into the business market, Lookout Mobile Security locks down one of the largest rounds of funding ever disclosed for a tech security firm.

 

John Hering (left), Lookout co-founder and chairman, and Jim Dolce, Lookout CEOLookout

Protecting mobile devices from hackers is big business, as evidenced by the latest round of funding for Lookout Mobile Security. The seven-year-old startup announced on Wednesday that it has secured $150 million in a new round of financing, the largest so far this year and one of the largest ever for a computer security firm.

It also totals more than all of Lookout's previous funding combined. Headquartered in downtown San Francisco, the firm started out making freemium mobile security apps for consumers on Android and iOS and securing carrier partnerships. Since then, they've broadened their business into the enterprise space, as well as building a security analytics platform and a small security-centered app marketplace.

Lookout reports that more than 50 million people now use its apps, and has "millions" of premium subscribers.

Lookout co-founder and executive chairman John Hering told CNET that investor confidence signaled by the new funding meant that his company had the right approach to mobile security.

"It is going to take years to accomplish what we believe we are capable of," Hering said. "[O]ur users, operator partners, and enterprise customers can all remain confident that this funding gives us the resources to aggressively pursue our goals while remaining independent."

"Mobile is the next frontier for enterprise security globally," Henry Ellenbogen of T. Rowe Price Associates said in a statement. "As an emerging leader in mobile security, we believe that Lookout has a huge opportunity ahead of it."

Up until last October, Lookout had raised $76 million. Then a round of funding from Mithril Capital Management, Qualcomm Ventures, Greylock Partners, and Deutsche Telekom scored it another $55 million.

Today's funding announcement more than doubles all funds that Lookout has raised to date, and was contributed by a mix of old and new investors in the company including T. Rowe Price Associates, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Investment, Bezos Expeditions, Wellington Management Company, Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Mithril.

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/lookout-mobile-security-nabs-150-million-in-funding/