Fixmo lands US$23.4M from Kleiner Perkins, Paladin and Horizons
World Exclusive: Kleiner Perkins joins Fixmo’s US$23.4M Series C financing
At last, I can share the good news that’s been picking up a head of steam for weeks now (see prior post “Good things brewing†Oct 5-11). Local boy Rick Segal has drawn one of the big Kahunas of venture capital investing to his Fixmo startup, which was born in Toronto and now has a joint HQ in Virginia. Just two years old, Fixmo began as an idea that would see all of us buy a “Norton Tools†product for our BlackBerries. Who wants to send a “flamemail†without having the chance to reconsider it before pushing the launch button? That idea got some natural interest from large New York law firms, for example, but a partnership with some serious U.S. government agencies has turned the story into one of Mobile Risk Management; and with that, Fixmo appears to have a tiger by the tail.
With the proliferation of tablet computers and smart phones that retain business and government secrets outside the confines of the office, someone had to figure out a way to secure it all. Fixmo’s traction has come from both government agencies and private enterprises that need to identify, mitigate and manage the risks associated with the proliferation of these devices within their workforce.
According to the bumpf, Fixmo’s applications enable organizations to secure their devices with authenticity, protection, compliance and auditability of the mobile devices and apps running within their environment. Fixmo helps organizations understand their risks and implement solutions that mitigate and manage those risks to the highest possible degree. Through a technology transfer agreement, Fixmo’s products have been built on a foundation of MRM technologies initially developed by the U.S. Government’s National Security Agency (NSA) and its Fixmo SafeZone solution has received FIPS 140-2 certification.
Rick’s career path has set him up perfectly to capitalize on Fixmo’s massive opportunity. There was the time as a successful VC at our neighbour JLA Ventures and the BlackBerry Partners Fund, his earlier CEO turn at Microforum, and a defining period at Microsoft. But I’ll bet it was his tour of duty with the US Air Force that made a difference; you’ve either served or you haven’t. The U.S. government isn’t going to trust their technology to just anyone, and Rick’s remarkable confluence of career experiences is certainly unusual in tech land. But perfect for this opportunity.
Joining new investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers in this round was Paladin (Washington), and Horizons (Hong Kong). Our firm has previously done business with Paladin via one of their U.S.-based portfolio companies, and they are best-in-class for anything VCish in the military or national security space. With KPCB, well, think Amazon, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, Intel, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems, Verisign…. You get the picture. Horizon’s backers include some of the biggest family names in Asia. Period.
Fixmo’s existing VC investors include Extreme Venture Partners (Amar Varma, who started investing back in the Common), RHO Canada (Jeff Grammer, came in to lead the Series A pref), Inovia (Chris Arsenault, who joined the team on the Series A1), and Silicon Valley-based Panorama (Chris Albinson, who led the Series B). Way back when, some local VCs and private equity guys personally played the role of Angel investor and joined the common and Pref A rounds as Rick got things started. We were probably investing in Rick at the time, which turned out to be our good fortune.
I’m sure there were buyers for the company and a quick flip for all, but the Board was wise to do a huge financing round and see just how big the opportunity can be. Security firms can transact in the 4-10x revenue range once rolling, and time is of the essence as governments start to get comfortable with allowing their employees to add tablets to their highly secure work environments.
This is an impressive and deep syndicate; 7 VCs in a Canadian deal? Unheard of. Congrats to everyone involved.
MRM
(disclosure – I’m an investor personally)
Nice scoop on the big news here, Mark!
At Rho, we are proud to be among the earliest supporters of Fixmo and Rick Segal (like yourself). Like many startup folks up here, I’ve known Rick for many years and he has brilliantly made the switch from VC to Entrepreneur. Rick and the Fixmo team have put together an amazing syndicate of investors, have market leading technology and have a billion dollar vision. Hang on tight, this is about to get very very exciting and interesting.
Impressive news. Strong backers, strong management team, large market opportunity. Indeed, the sky is the limit.
Future looks good!
I had the pleasure of meeting Rick while at JLA. I miss his blog but great to see him turn that energy into such a great success.
Regards,
George
Curious who are Fixmo’s clients? Website doesn’t say much. This looks like a super inflated hyped story so far, with a lot of investors jumping on the gravy train. I hope I’m wrong, but isn’t time to show some real results instead of raising the bar on expectations with each impressive round of financing. Rick has shown he can raise amazing rounds, being a VC himself, he had friends and knows the game. Waiting for the story to get interesting can be said about just any startup. Isn’t it time to show it after so much investment?
Jill H,
You don’t get institutional money from friends, you get institutional money from traction, sales and growth. You’re right Rick knows how to raise money from VC’s because Rick knows how to build a fast growing sustainable business.
Huge win for him and all the investors. Well done guys.
matt