Insider Brief
- Alcion, a modern data management startup, has successfully raised $21 million in a Series A funding round led by Veeam, a data protection and ransomware recovery leader.
- This funding brings Alcion’s total funding to $29 million.
- Alcion’s AI-driven Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform for Microsoft 365, designed with a strong focus on security, is gaining rapid adoption and boasts a multi-layered security approach that includes threat detection, intelligent backup scheduling, encryption, and delete protection.
PRESS RELEASE — SANTA CLARA, Calif./September 19, 2023 — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Alcion, a modern data management startup, announced today it raised $21M in a Series A funding round, bringing the startup’s total funding to $29M. The round was led by Veeam, a leader in data protection and ransomware recovery, and supports the general availability and global go-to-market expansion of Alcion’s security-first AI-driven Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform for Microsoft 365 and, moving forward, protection of other business-critical SaaS services. Its multi-layered approach to security combats ransomware and malware using threat detection, intelligent backup scheduling, encryption, and delete protection.
“Data protection is more critical than ever. Since exiting stealth in May, we’ve witnessed a 700% increase in organizations using the platform, propelling Alcion to a petabyte of managed logical backups,” said Niraj Tolia, CEO and co-founder of Alcion. “This round of funding positions us to rapidly scale our mission of protecting all the world’s data against both malicious threats and accidents. Alcion customers and the rapidly growing open-source Corso community will benefit from greater functionality, ease of use, and heightened ransomware detection.”
This release includes Alcion’s industry-leading AI-driven ransomware protection models that constantly learn from user behavior and operate on a per-user or resource level to detect targeted attacks. Given research that shows 94% of ransomware attacks target backup repositories and 68% of these attacks result in full or partial compromise including deletion of backups, the company has also placed a special focus on boosting security features that protect backups.
Alcion will additionally focus on building features for its managed service provider (MSP) customers as well as extend data protection features for additional SaaS services apart from Microsoft 365. Other high-impact features include:
- Deepened focus on data security: Improvements include heightened ransomware detection, clarity in malware protection, actionable insights, immutable backups as well as malware alerts and notifications in app and via email.
- SOC 2 Type II certification: This certification demonstrates the implementation of rigorous controls and procedures that ensure the security, integrity, and confidentiality of customer data.
- Proactive approach to data protection: The platform will proactively help admins ensure that their Microsoft 365 data is properly protected vs. notifying them after exposure. New features include a Compliance Score for quick evaluation of configuration and backup health, in addition to targeted Data Protection Insights and Recommendations based on data activity in the tenant.
- Ease of product functionality: Increased integration with Teams, Shared Mailboxes, export of backups to local files, restore options, and notifications.
- Flexible self-service: Now listed on the Microsoft Marketplace, Alcion BaaS for Microsoft 365 is an easy, fully flexible self-service purchasing option available to all.
- Worldwide availability: The general availability of a new Australian region is now paired with existing US and EU regions, with more expansion to come.
“Ransomware has become an insidious threat for every organization,” said Mike Waas, CEO of Datometry. “As an organization that serves primarily Fortune 500 and Global 2000 customers, strong data protection is imperative for us. Alcion for Microsoft 365 ensures our data is protected and secure at all times. Put simply, Alcion gives us peace of mind.”
“Every organization faces challenges in protecting their data from outages and cyber-attacks,” said Danny Allan, CTO at Veeam. “Helping customers combat endemic issues like ransomware will take an industry wide effort coupled with technical and business investment. Along with providing the world’s leading data protection and ransomware recovery capabilities, Veeam is committed to championing and fostering new cybersecurity innovation and our investment in Alcion is part of that commitment. It’s great they have reached this important product milestone.”
In addition to Veeam, the Series A round saw participation from all prior investors including Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman of Walden International and Intel Board Member, Debanjan Saha, CEO of DataRobot, Abhinav Asthana, CEO and founder of Postman, and Amarjit Gill, serial entrepreneur and investor at Nepenthe Capital.
For more information, or to try Alcion for free, visit alcion.ai.
About Alcion, Inc.
Alcion is a security-first AI-driven Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that helps Microsoft 365 administrators quickly and intuitively protect data from cyber threats and accidental data loss. Its multi-layered approach to security combats ransomware and malware using threat detection, intelligent backup scheduling, encryption, and delete protection. Its robust yet intuitive workflows increase productivity for admins of all skill levels. With a focus on data security, including ransomware protection, Alcion is using a community and open-source-driven development approach to deliver a modern product focused on the needs of IT administrators. Founded in 2022, Alcion is a distributed company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow us on Twitter at @alcionai and join us on Discord.
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