Sequoia Capital-backed Vanta raises funding at $2.45 bln valuation (updated)

Vanta Bioscience

24/07/2024 15:17

(Adds CEO comment in paragraph 6)
    By Pritam Biswas
       July 24 (Reuters) - Online security and compliance
management platform Vanta said on Wednesday it had raised $150
million in a fresh funding round led by venture capital firm
Sequoia Capital, giving it a valuation of $2.45 billion.
    Companies pursuing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption are
attracting the attention of U.S. venture capital firms after a
near two-year lull driven by high interest rates and a sluggish
exit market for startup investors.
    Vanta said it wants to double down on its AI innovation,
eliminate legacy tools in compliance and deepen its global
presence by venturing into the UK and Australia.
    The venture capital businesses of banking giants Goldman
Sachs  GS.N  and JPMorgan Chase  JPM.N  also participated in the
round that saw all previous investors returning, bringing the
lifetime raise of the company to $353 million since 2021.
    San Francisco-based Vanta had raised $50 million in 2021 in
a round led by Sequoia Capital, which also participated in its
fundraise the year after.
    "Having Sequoia triple down on Vanta, including leading both
our Series A and Series C rounds is tremendous validation," CEO
Christina Cacioppo said, adding that such a sustained and
long-term partnership is "rare".
    The company achieved a valuation of $1.6 billion when it
raised $110 million in 2022.
    It has more than 8,000 customers, including hiring platform
SmartRecruiters and database company ZoomInfo  ZI.O .
    Vanta, founded in 2018 by Cacioppo, helps its clients with
security monitoring and achieving compliance certifications at a
faster pace through process automation.
    "We're investing in Vanta because of their demonstrated
platform approach, starting with automated compliance and
rapidly adding new modules," said Goldman Sachs growth equity
investor Mike Reilly.
    Atlassian Ventures, Craft Ventures, CrowdStrike Ventures,
HubSpot Ventures, Workday Ventures and Y Combinator were the
other investors in the funding round.

 (Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
 ((Pritam.Biswas@thomsonreuters.com;))