Palo Alto Networks Announces Venture Fund for Security Innovation

Palo Alto Networks announced it is forming a $20 million security venture fund. The fund will provide early stage capital investments to fuel development of innovative security applications for the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform

The fund will be aimed at seed-, early- and growth-stage security companies with a cloud-based application approach. These companies can accelerate their routes to market for their respective technology by developing cloud-based applications built upon the Palo Alto Networks platform and the new Palo Alto Networks Application Framework, easily engaging the tens of thousands of Palo Alto Networks customer deployments.

The fund expects to collaborate with Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital to identify and evaluate innovative security applications for potential co-investment.  By providing capital, the fund will enable entrepreneurs and security vendors to focus on developing high-value functionality for customers, instead of developing the infrastructure and data stores necessary to effectively deliver their applications and establish a foothold in the market.

The investments in entrepreneurial security companies are designed to accelerate the development of new security applications for the Palo Alto Networks platform. “This new fund will build upon our reputation for developing innovative, next-generation security technologies and demonstrate the excellent momentum that we have achieved with our ecosystem of security partners. It represents an essential part of our mission to help organizations prevent cyber breaches by inspiring and accelerating a groundswell of security innovation in a model that can be easily accessed and deployed by customer organizations.” said Chad Kinzelberg, senior vice president, Business and Corporate Development, Palo Alto Networks