Irish cybersecurity automation company Tines raises $55m

Irish cybersecurity automation start-up Tines has raised a further $55 million in funding as it extends its Series B round.

The funding round was led by US-based venture capital company Felicis, with existing investors Accel, Blossom Capital, Addition and Lux Capital also participating.

It brings to more than $96 million the total funding raised by the Irish company to date, with $81 million raised through the Series B alone.

Founded by cybersecurity experts Eoin Hinchy and Thomas Kinsella in 2018, the company has developed software that allows employees to automate security workflows without needing technical skills. That frees up software engineers to focus on mission-critical tasks, rather than mundane ones. Its customers include Coinbase, McKesson, Canva, Databricks, MongoDB, Sophos, Kayak, and Fenergo.

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Mr Hinchy said the company planned to double down on research and development, partnerships and getting products to market.

“We’ve worked really hard to become a market leader, and now is not the time to slow down; we believe the need for no-code automation has never been greater,” he said. “We’ll use this investment to double down on our go-to-market efforts, research and development, and partnership alliances, and continue to ruthlessly focus on our priorities,” he said.

Tines employs more than 150 people across four continents, a number that is set to grow in the coming months. The company last raised money in April 2021, when backers Addition, Accel, Blossom, CrowdStrike and angel investor group Silicon Valley CISO backed its Series B round. That gave it a market valuation of $300 million.

“We are excited to be partnering with Eoin, Thomas, and the Tines team in their next phase of growth,” said Aydin Senkut, founder and managing partner of Felicis. “As the global economy weakens, many businesses are having to rethink their strategies and contend with fewer resources and leaner teams. Security is a key challenge that needs to be met head-on as cyberattacks continue to increase in volume and sophistication. Tines is on a mission to remove technology barriers and make SecOps teams on the front lines more effective and efficient with smaller teams, providing an accessible on-ramp to more streamlined operations.”

Mr Senkut will join the board, along with Tom Killalea, former vice-president of technology at Amazon.com, who will serve as an independent board member. Mr Killalea is also on the board of MongoDB.

“Tom has been an angel investor of Tines since the beginning and has added so much value,” Mr Hinchy said, describing him as a “terrific addition” to the board.