Cato Networks, provider of the world’s leading single-vendor SASE platform, announced that annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew from $1 million to $100 million in just five years.
This best-in-class performance for enterprise network security compares with LinkedIn and faster than consumer-oriented brands, such as Twilio, Wix, Zapier, Canva, and Shopify.
Like these companies, Cato was the first to bring a born-for-the-cloud architecture to disrupt its category. Since its founding in 2015, Cato's vision has been of a single, global platform to converge enterprise networking and networking security in the cloud, a vision that was adopted in 2019 by Gartner in the SASE framework and more recently the market guide for Single-Vendor SASE. To date, Cato SASE Cloud has been adopted by 1,500+ enterprise customers spanning 23,000+ branch locations and cloud instances and 450,000+ remote users across 150+ countries.
Time Required for Cloud-native Startups to Reach $100M ARR
Cato reached $100M ARR in just five years, record time for enterprise networking security. (Source: Cato and Bessemer Venture Partners)
Born-in-the Cloud, Cato Networks Revolutionizes Networking and Security
Achieving $100 million in ARR, the so-called Centaur status, is seen as a better predictor of business success than becoming a Unicorn, which Cato achieved in 2020.
Like other Centaurs, Cato’s remarkable growth was propelled by revolutionizing its industry, introducing the first and most mature single-vendor SASE solution. Until Cato, enterprise IT teams suffered the costs, complexity, and risks of networks built from discrete, specialized security and networking appliances. With the Cato Single Pass Cloud Engine (SPACE) architecture, Cato showed how replacing appliances with a single-vendor SASE platform could transform enterprise IT infrastructure.
“At the end of the day, we needed a way to support our 50 locations and 20,000 remote users with a solution that was simple, allowed us to co-manage because we like to maintain control, and with a dev ops approach within IT of whoever builds and runs it,” says Joel Jacobson, Global WAN Manager at Vitesco Technologies, an international leader in intelligent and electrified drive systems for sustainable mobility. “Cato allowed us the flexibility to incorporate our WAN, Internet, and remote access solutions into one neat package that could be managed with a small team of people. There was no other package out there quite like it.”
Cato: The Gold Standard for Single-Vendor SASE Platforms
Cato’s transformation of networking and security into a converged cloud architecture led to the industry realignment of SASE.
The percentage of new single-vendor SASE deployments is expected to more than triple in the next three years. According to Gartner, “By 2025, one-third of new SASE deployments will be based on a single-vendor SASE offering, up from 10% in 2022.” At the same time, Gartner expects that the SASE market will grow at a CAGR of 35.8%, reaching almost $21 billion by 2026.1
This architectural shift is the unsung story of SASE. The cloudification and convergence of networking and security brought cloud agility and economics to bear on IT infrastructure. It is this architectural change that allows massive operational IT improvements and efficiencies and leads, as Gartner noted, to improved security posture, network and staff security efficacy, and user and administrator experience2. Integrating appliances together may share similar features as a single-vendor SASE solution but will lack the cloud’s benefits.
Cloud delivery and convergence of capabilities are transforming IT. Cato is a driving force behind that trend in networking and security -- and we have only just begun our journey. Whether a company is in the Fortune 500 or 500-employees, all can be connected and secured by the Cato SASE Cloud.
Alon Alter, Chief Revenue Officer at Cato Networks
Cato is leading the biggest disruption of the networking and network security markets since the introduction of the next-generation firewall 17 years ago. The simplicity, agility, visibility, and control of the Cato SASE Cloud brings world-class security protection and optimal network performance to businesses of all sizes. Driven by security and networking experts, Cato has the right service DNA and technology to become the mission-critical platform for the digital enterprise.
Toru Maruta, an executive officer and head of product management at KDDI
Since the start of COVID-19, hybrid work has spread rapidly, and security solutions including SASE have become enablers for this. Hybrid work is achieved through the combination of various components including local breakout with SD-WANs, remote access with SSEs, and endpoint protection with EDR. However, combining and smoothly managing a variety of components is a large pain point for corporate IT managers. Cato's full package makes it easy to combine and manage such services, and it has won the approval of many customers. The partnership between KDDI, with its long years of experience providing and operating network services, and Cato, with its full package SASE solution, represents the optimal solution for corporate IT environments that aim to accelerate their digital transformation.
