Cequence Security Valuation, Funding & Investors
Cequence Security is valued at $85M as of February 2019.
Last Cequence Security valuation
$85M
Series B · Feb 2019
Last Cequence Security funding round
Strategic investment
Amount undisclosed · Aug 2023
Cumulative funding Cequence Security raised
$102M
across 6 funding rounds
Key investors in Cequence Security
Shasta Ventures
Dell Technologies Capital
T-Mobile Ventures
Menlo Ventures
TriplePoint Capital
Titanium Ventures
About Cequence Security
Cequence Security is a Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity company founded in 2014. Its Unified API Protection platform helps enterprises discover application-programming interfaces, test them for vulnerabilities and defend them against fraud, abuse and automated attacks. The software combines API inventory, posture management, bot management and real-time threat detection in one service. Banks, retailers, telecommunications providers, healthcare organizations and other large enterprises use the platform to protect public and internal APIs without changing application code. Cequence sells its technology through recurring software subscriptions and partner channels. The company says its platform protects billions of API interactions and uses machine learning to distinguish legitimate traffic from malicious automation. Sanabil invested in the business in 2023 to support Cequence's expansion in the Middle East. Cequence remains privately held and serves customers from offices in North America, Europe and India.
Founded
2014
HQ
Santa Clara, CAWebsite
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription
Valuation
$85M (Feb 2019)
Cequence Security Valuation
Cequence Security is currently valued at $85M, based on its Series B in February 2019.
The $17M round was led by Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Shasta Ventures.
Cequence Security valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2019 | Series B | $85M |
Cequence Security Funding History
Cequence Security has raised a total of $102M across 6 funding rounds.
Cequence Security's first fundraising round was a $7M seed round in October 2016. The most recent completed round was a strategic investment round in August 2023.
Cequence Security funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2023 | Strategic investment | Sanabil | - | - | Cequence Security disclosed an investment from Sanabil in a company announcement dated August 7, 2023. The cybersecurity provider described Sanabil's capital as support for its expansion in the Middle East but did not disclose the amount, valuation or a numbered round stage. Cequence develops a unified application-programming-interface security platform that discovers APIs, evaluates their security posture and protects them from automated attacks, fraud and abuse. Enterprise customers use the software across web, mobile and internal applications without changing application code. Its modules cover API inventory, security testing, bot management and real-time detection of attacks such as account takeover, credential stuffing and business-logic abuse. The company said it had expanded internationally and was protecting billions of API transactions for customers in financial services, retail, telecommunications, healthcare and other industries. Sanabil's investment was intended to support regional market entry and customer development rather than a change of control. |
| Dec 2021 | Series C | Menlo Ventures (lead); Icon Ventures; T-Mobile Ventures; Titanium Ventures; Shasta Ventures; Dell Technologies Capital; HarbourVest Partners | $60M | - | Cequence Security is a cybersecurity company focused on protecting APIs and web applications from attacks, business logic abuse, and online fraud using an analytics engine that examines request patterns, clustering, and intent to detect threats like account takeover, credential stuffing, and inventory manipulation. In December 2021, it raised a $60 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from new investors Icon Ventures, Telstra Ventures, and HarbourVest Partners, plus existing investors Shasta Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, and T-Mobile Ventures, bringing total funding to $100 million at that time. The funds were intended to fuel growth amid a shift toward API security, discovering API footprints without instrumentation, detecting abuse, and mitigating threats based on approximately 150 data points. Cequence positions itself against competitors in API security and bot management, protecting over 10 billion daily API interactions and 4 billion user accounts for large organizations. It has pursued partnerships like with Software AG in 2022 and achieved AWS Retail Competency status, while research highlights cyber risks like $2.58M per hour at stake during holidays. |
| Jun 2021 | Series B | T-Mobile Ventures; Cerity Partners Ventures; Shasta Ventures; Dell Technologies Capital | $10M | - | - |
| Feb 2019 | Series B | Dell Technologies Capital (lead); Shasta Ventures | $17M | $85M | Cequence Security, a Sunnyvale, CA-based provider of application security solutions, raised $17 million in a Series B funding round on February 27, 2019, led by Dell Technologies Capital with participation from Shasta Ventures, bringing total funding to $30 million. The company develops an AI-powered platform that protects web, mobile, and application services from automated bot and manual attacks, including account fraud and content scraping, by analyzing behaviors and intents in web traffic. The funding supports market expansion, sales and marketing efforts in the US and international markets, and continued platform innovations to address sophisticated semantic and syntactic attacks on internet-facing applications and APIs. Cequence, founded in 2014, had recently emerged from stealth, securing large deals averaging $500,000 with Fortune 100 customers in sectors like financial services, social media, retail, and gaming, and employed 34 people at the time. The leadership team includes veterans from Palo Alto Networks and Symantec. One source lists a post-money valuation of $84.51 million for this Series B round. Shasta Ventures had led the prior $8 million Series A in 2018. |
| Feb 2018 | Series A | Shasta Ventures (lead) | $8M | - | Cequence Security raised an $8 million Series A round led by Shasta Ventures in February 2018. Shasta Ventures had previously participated in the company's seed funding. The company develops an application security platform using AI to protect web, mobile, and API services from automated bot attacks, account fraud, and content scraping, deployable in the cloud or on-premise. Subsequent rounds included a $17 million Series B in February 2019 led by Dell Technologies Capital with Shasta Ventures participation, bringing total funding to $30 million, and a $60 million Series C in December 2021 led by Menlo Ventures, increasing total investment to $100 million. The funding supported market expansion, platform innovations, sales and marketing, and hiring. Cequence protects assets worth $9 trillion and over 2 billion user accounts for Fortune 500 customers, securing more than 6 billion API calls daily. |
| Oct 2016 | Seed | 408 Ventures; Wisemont Capital; TechSquare Labs; SV Tech Ventures; Kevin Mahaffey; Monta Vista Capital; TriplePoint Capital | $7M | - | - |
Who has invested in Cequence Security?
16 investors have backed Cequence Security across its funding rounds, including Shasta Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, T-Mobile Ventures, Menlo Ventures, TriplePoint Capital and Titanium Ventures.
Lead investors include Menlo Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital and Shasta Ventures.
Cequence Security Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | Lead | Feb 2018 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 3 | Lead | Feb 2019 | |
| Seattle, WA | 2 | Participant | Jun 2021 | |
| Menlo Park, CA | 1 | Lead | Dec 2021 | |
| United States | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | |
| Palo Alto | 1 | Participant | Dec 2021 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Dec 2021 | |
| Seattle, WA | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | |
| Atlanta, GA | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | |
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><rect fill="%23e5e7eb" width="20" height="20" rx="4"/></svg>){kind=small} Kevin Mahaffey | San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 |
| Haddonfield, NJ | 1 | Participant | Jun 2021 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | |
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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
Sign up to see data on 350K+ funding rounds and disclosed revenue and EBITDA valuation multiples, from seed, through growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Start Free TrialCequence Security Competitors
Cequence Security competitors include listed companies like Pluszero and CyCraft Technology, and private ones like Promptfoo, Univers, Cropin and Tavus.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $86M | - | |
 Marbella | Private | - | - | $87M | - | |
 Bangalore | Private | $4M | - | $90M | 22.5x | |
 Japan | Publicly listed | $10M | $4M | $80M | 5.8x | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $80M | - | |
 Taiwan | Publicly listed | $11M | ($864K) | $75M | - |
Cequence Security Public Comps
Cequence Security is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Quick Heal Technologies, TAC Infosec, Wins Technet, RTB Digital (Roundtable), Advenica, Pluszero, Stradvision, Aton Inc, CyCraft Technology and Enea.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $28M | ($733K) | 2.2x | - | (83.9x) | - | |||
| $6M | $3M | 14.2x | - | 27.0x | - | |||
| $73M | $18M | 0.2x | - | 0.9x | - | |||
| $11M | ($13M) | 8.2x | - | (6.8x) | - | |||
| $21M | $3M | 3.7x | 4.1x | 24.0x | 49.2x | |||
| $10M | $4M | 7.4x | 5.8x | 19.6x | - | |||
| $13M | ($21M) | 2.4x | 2.6x | (1.5x) | - | |||
| $50M | $4M | 1.7x | - | 21.3x | - | |||
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Common questions about Cequence Security
| When was Cequence Security founded? | Cequence Security was founded in 2014. |
| Where is Cequence Security headquartered? | Cequence Security is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, United States. |
| Is Cequence Security publicly listed? | No, Cequence Security is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Cequence Security's valuation? | Cequence Security was last valued at $85M in its Series B in February 2019. |
| How much funding has Cequence Security raised? | Cequence Security has raised $102M across 6 funding rounds. |
| What was Cequence Security's last funding round? | Cequence Security's last funding round was a strategic investment round in August 2023. |
| Who are Cequence Security's investors? | Cequence Security's investors include Shasta Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, T-Mobile Ventures, Menlo Ventures, 408 Ventures, Icon Ventures, Titanium Ventures, Wisemont Capital, TechSquare Labs, SV Tech Ventures and 6 others. |
| Which companies are comparable to Cequence Security? | Companies comparable to Cequence Security include Promptfoo, Univers, Cropin, Pluszero, Tavus and CyCraft Technology. |
See companies similar to Cequence Security
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