FireHost Raises $10 Million in Series C Funding Led by The Stephens Group, LLC
September 18, 2012
Capital will accelerate plans for global expansion and rolling out new secure cloud service offerings.
FireHost, a company, announces today a $10M Series C funding round, financed entirely from existing investors including The Stephens Group, LLC, and angel investors that have funded FireHost since its inception. Since the company’s’ official launch in 2009, FireHost has quickly gained market share as the go-to-cloud host for enterprise security and performance. Growing at a rate of almost 200 percent year-over-year, FireHost serves organizations from start-ups to Fortune 50s that need to protect mission critical data on websites, applications and databases. The company currently has operations in the U.S. and Europe, and plans to expand into more countries over the next year. Additionally, this round of funding will be used to build out infrastructure and new services that help businesses of all sizes secure their most important data in the cloud.
“FireHost has created exactly what the market needs, at exactly the right time, and is executing flawlessly,” said Aaron Clark, vice president of The Stephens Group, LLC. “As investors, everything about this company excites us. The leadership, the technology, and the market opportunity couldn’t be brighter. Our group is thrilled to be FireHost’s primary investment partner.”
FireHost protects some of the biggest names in healthcare, security, eCommerce and SaaS. Brands such as Murad, 3M, Farmers Insurance, Johns Hopkins University, ArcSight by HP, and Hamilton Beach trust FireHost to keep their websites and applications always online, performing at top speed, and, of course, safe from hackers. Since securing a $10M Series B round this time last year, FireHost has expanded into Europe, launched business continuity solutions, opened additional data center facilities, and deployed a global partner program. The company has also blocked more than 250 million hack attempts on its customers and continues to be a leading resource on security threats and how to stop them.
“The cloud hosting industry is expanding and evolving at a rate that can’t be ignored. 451 Research analysts are watching this movement very closely, including the vendors that shape it,” said Jason Verge, analyst with 451 Research. “FireHost is one of those exciting companies we’ve kept our eye on for nearly three years and have followed how it’s innovating in the areas of public cloud security and infrastructure-as-a-service. Its aggressive roadmap and this new round of capital could mean FireHost has a significant impact on the hosting space in the coming year.”
“FireHost has some exciting initiatives just over the horizon that we’ll be able to execute on quickly with this new capital,” adds Chris Drake, CEO of FireHost. “Expect some market changing announcements from us in the coming months.”
ABOUT FIREHOST, INC.
FireHost is a secure cloud hosting company focused on protecting companies’ sensitive data and brand reputations with an architecture built for security, scalability and performance. Customers with specific compliance or performance needs subscribe to FireHost’s PCI, HIPAA or high traffic solutions, including some of the largest companies in the world as well as many fast-growing eCommerce, SaaS and healthcare IT providers. FireHost provides services from Dallas, Phoenix, London and Amsterdam.
ABOUT THE STEPHENS GROUP, LLC
The Stephens Group is a family-owned private equity firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas, that invests patient, flexible capital in partnership with exceptional management teams pursuing long-term growth objectives.