Why Did We Invest in LayerX?

We have recently announced an A round of $26M in LayerX, a secure browser add-on company. As Glilot+ (our A/B round fund), took a significant position in this round. We launched Glilot+ primarily to invest beyond our existing portfolio. Why did we decide to double down and put a significant amount of additional funds in the company?

Working as a professional investor for the past 13 years taught me that it’s not an everyday occurrence to witness a great team outperforming its domain. When you do encounter such a situation, it’s crucial to seize the opportunity and accelerate as quickly as possible. Joined by Dell Technologies Capital, we’ve chosen to double down on our investment in the company.

The team is amazing, both Or Eshed and David Vaisbrud have proven themselves to be true leaders, every step of the way. However, having a great team is not enough, more is needed to justify doubling down on a company.

Here are some of the insights gained that reinforced our decision to increase our investment in the company:

1. A huge opportunity

As browsers become the new service edge, the need to secure them becomes more apparent in protecting an organization’s workforce, identities and data. Unlike a fully secure browser, which is limited to parts of the organization (mostly unmanaged devices), a security browser add-on is relevant to all of the employees in a company and as such, presents a much larger market.

2. Market leader from day one

The security market is very competitive, turning into a market leader is hard and risky. LayerX, became a market leader in an amazingly short amount of time. The company is constantly winning over competition based on product and technology, led by increased user adoption. LayerX is already protecting hundreds of thousands of browsers, well ahead of any competition both on the browser add on and full browser domains.

3. A real platform

There are many prominent companies in the cybersecurity field, however, most of them are single feature operations. LayerX is different, it’s a true platform. The company’s use cases span a very wide range from protecting workforce browsing, to SaaS protection and visibility and even Generative AI protection. The ability to support a range of use cases and functionality in a singleplatform, is very encouraging. We believe that unlike many other cyber companies, the potential here is truly endless and here to stay for the long term.

4. Initial traction

We have been investing in young cyber companies for the past 13 years. The business KPIs of LayerX have been extraordinary, positioning it in the top percentile of similar companies within and outside of our portfolio. While it’s true that this is only the beginning, the company (and ourselves) need to remain humble, focused, and committed to continue to deliver. However, we have learned the importance of a strong start specifically in a competitive market.

5. Big Logos, Big Checks, High Satisfaction

It’s not just about high level KPIs. Even as a very young company, LayerX has won big logos, paying big amounts and expressing high satisfaction with the product. Particularly noteworthy is the challenge of a young company providing an endpoint solution to a mature organization, which could pose risks in terms of client satisfaction. This is far from being trivial and we believe shows the strength of the team and the offering.

6. Real technology

When most people think of a browser add-on their intuition guides them to think that the technology is simple. The reality of LayerX is just the opposite. Creating a browser add-on is not hard but creating one that provides deep security, wide and flexible use cases, true enterprise grade scalability and real leverage of AI, is very difficult and unique. LayerX technology combines all of the above to create a real technology moat and a great basis for a leading innovative company.

About LayerX

LayerX, founded in 2022 by Or Eshed, CEO, and David Vaisbrud CTO, leverages their expertise from military service in web attack and defense systems. Eshed’s leadership in exposing a historic attack campaign on Chrome in 2017, leading to the capture and trial of hackers, underscores their commitment to security. With Fortune 100 clients globally, LayerX offers its Enterprise Browser Extension, seamlessly integrating with any browser to create a highly secure workspace without compromising user experience. Enterprises rely on LayerX to safeguard devices, identities, data, and SaaS apps from web threats and browsing risks beyond the reach of traditional endpoint and network solutions, including data leakage, malicious browser extensions, phishing, account takeovers, and more.

About Glilot

Glilot Capital Partners is a multi-stage venture fund that invests in Israel’s most extraordinary entrepreneurs. Glilot backs teams that develop advanced technology in areas of Cybersecurity and AI/ML. The fund supports founders from inception with long term relationships and methodologies built in over a decade. Glilot was founded in 2011 and currently manages close to $1B. This round was led by Glilot+, the early growth fund of Glilot Capital Partners, which focuses on leading Series A and B rounds in the firm’s focus sectors.