Aqua Security Software Ltd.’s latest blockbuster funding round demonstrates the insatiable appetite among enterprises for more container security controls.

The company, which sells tools to protect container-based, cloud-native and serverless applications from malware and malicious attacks, today said it has raised $62 million in a Series C round of funding. Insight Partners is the lead investor, with previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, M12, TLV Partners and Shlomo Kramer also participating in the round. Aqua Security has now raised over $100 million.

Aqua sells a Cloud Native Security Platform that gives developers the ability to automate and improve container security and compliance posture, monitor usage and control user access. It provides granular controls over container and serverless security, supports both Docker and Windows containers, and can be deployed on-premises.

The platform also gives users full visibility into container activity, allowing them to detect and prevent attacks and suspicious activity in real time. By integrating with the application lifecycle and orchestration tools, Aqua said, its platform can even automate security processes while helping to enforce regulatory compliance.

These kinds of water tight security tools are increasingly in demand in an age when enterprises are becoming more reliant on software containers, which are used by developers to build apps that can run on any computing infrastructure. They’re equally sought after by developers of serverless apps, where the management and allocation of servers and resources are completely managed by cloud providers.

The demand for such tools helps to explain why container security has become such a crowded market segment, with numerous startups all vying for a piece of the action. Aqua Security’s competitors in the space include the likes of Twistlock Inc., StackRox, NeuVector and Qualys, to name just a few.

Asked how Aqua Security differentiates itself from these rivals, co-founder and Chief Executive Dror Davidoff told SiliconANGLE it was all about product-market fit and enterprise focus.

“At Aqua, we recognized from the start that this space requires a different approach to security and were the first to provide a full lifecycle solution, which all other vendors have been trying to imitate,” Davidoff said.

Davidoff added that he expects the container security market will eventually consolidate around just a few leaders, and that Aqua Security is well-positioned to become one of them.

“Containers have won the load for modern compute, but they still need to be secured on the operational side,” said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc., explaining why Aqua was able to attract such significant funding.

Proof of this demand for greater security can be seen in Aqua’s strong growth over the last year. The company reckons that its customer base has doubled over the last 12 months. It also said it has come to dominate container security in the financial services sector, counting five of the world’s top 10 banks and six of the world’s 15 largest insurance companies among its customers.

Aqua Security officials said they plan to use its new funds to expand its presence in the financial services and other markets and add new features to its platform.

Image: Aqua Security