Cloud Security Innovator Avanan Opens D.C. and Philadelphia Sales & Marketing Offices to Support Rapid Growth




Cloud Security Innovator Avanan Opens D.C. and Philadelphia Sales & Marketing Offices to Support Rapid Growth

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July 14, 2016 10:19 ET | Source: Avanan

NEW YORK, July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avanan, the cloud security platform, today announced the opening of its new sales and marketing offices in Reston, Virginia, a D.C.-area hot spot for some of the world’s leading security companies, and emerging tech startup hub Philadelphia.

Following a May 2016 venture round of $14.9 million from Greenfield Cities Holdings, L.P., Avanan is expanding its sales and marketing team to accelerate the company's rapid growth in bringing innovative, next-generation cloud security solutions to the enterprise IT security market worldwide.

Avanan’s Cloud Security Platform is an entirely new way to secure highly vulnerable SaaS mail applications such as Office 365 Mail and Google Mail. With a single click, enterprises of all sizes can protect from malware such as ransomware and phishing, using preconfigured cloud-based versions of security technology from more than 60 leading vendors such as Check Point, Symantec, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, Sophos and Kaspersky.

The office expansion is just the latest move demonstrating Avanan’s market success and expanding customer base. Just last month, Avanan named Steven Toole chief marketing officer. Toole was previously the vice president of Marketing for Reston-based semantic indexing technology provider Content Analyst Company, acquired by kCura Corporation in March 2016, and brings 26 years of experience to the Avanan team.

Avanan plans to hire at least 10 more sales and marketing personnel to work out of the company’s Reston and Philadelphia locations, and others throughout the U.S., this year.

“The Herndon/Reston area serves as the D.C. office location for several of Avanan’s partners, including Microsoft, Symantec, Amazon and Palo Alto Networks, and Philadelphia is quickly becoming a startup haven as well,” said Gil Friedrich, Avanan founder and CEO. “Government agencies and enterprises want the benefits of SaaS mail, and we let them use the on-premise security solutions that they trust and apply them to the cloud mail applications. We’re the only company that can do this.”

Avanan has been named a 2016 Gartner Cool Vendor, a Red Herring Top 100 North American Tech Startup and one of CRN’s 20 Coolest Cloud Security Vendors of 2016. The company is headquartered in New York City with Research & Development in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

About Avanan, the Cloud Security Platform
Avanan secures SaaS mail programs such as Office 365 Mail and Google Mail or any cloud application with one click, using security technology from more than 60 industry-leading vendors.

In May 2016, Avanan raised $14.9 million in Series A financing. Greenfield Cities Holdings, L.P. (GFC), a TPG Growth portfolio company, led the round, with participation from Avanan’s existing investors, Magma VC and StageOne Ventures, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $16.4 million.

Avanan is based in New York City with R&D in Tel-Aviv, Israel and sales and marketing in Reston, Virginia and Philadelphia. (http://www.avanan.com)



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Michael Dubin, Main Line native & Haverford School grad, sells his Dollar Shave Club to Unilever for $1 billion



Tom Paine



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Michael Dubin is a wealthy man.

Dubin's Dollar Shave Club has agreed to be acquired by Unilever for about $1 billion in cash.

Dubin grew up on the Main Line and graduated from the Haverford School. He graduated from Emory University before heading west to LA.

He founded DSC in 2011 with a boost from a viral video ad in which Dubin, who had taken an occasional shot at improv, was the star.



The valuation was a bit surprising, but not so much relative to competitor Harry's, which was co-founded by a Warby Parker co-founder. Harry's was valued at $700 million in its latest round.

Unilever said that Dollar Shave Club had sales of $152 million in sales last year, and expected more than $200 million in revenue this year. Its sale represents a big win for the subscription business model, which has been under pressure recently in some cases.

Here's a profile of DSC I wrote in 2014, in which I wondered why First Round Capital hadn't invested in the subscription razor model. Comcast Ventures was an investor in DSC, however.

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Tom Paine



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Code developed by an Exton firm and widely distributed throughout the mobile telecom infrastructure is deemed at risk for major intrusion, security experts say.

A bug resides in a code library developed by Objective Systems of Exton, which is present in a "wide range of telecommunication products, including radios in cell towers, routers, and switches, as well as the baseband chips in individual phones," according to an Ars Technica article. Although it would take considerable skill, the bug could be exploited to take control of entire networks.

The code library is used to implement a telephony standard known as ASN.1, or Abstract Syntax Notation One. Objective Systems has released a patch, but it would be difficult to get the patch to all the nodes and devices in which it resides. That's a problem which will only multiply with the growth of the Internet of Things.

The Ars Technica article quotes HD Moore, principal at a firm called Special Circumstances, describing the flaw as a "big deal" because of the breadth of gear that are at risk of complete takeover.

Founded in 1997, Objective Systems appears to be a small, though influential, firm. LinkedIn only shows 10 employee for it, although that's not always a completely accurate indicator. Its a bit hard to find out who's behind the company, but its CEO is Ed Day, an engineering grad from Penn State who gained his early experience with MCI.



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