XONA Systems secures $18 million in funding to bolster OT cybersecurity amid rising threats

June 11, 2024

XONA Systems announced on Tuesday the close of a US$18 million strategic funding round led by cyber investor Energy Impact Partners (EIP), bringing the company’s total funding to $32 million. The funding will allow the company to enhance its OT (operational technology) enterprise zero-trust user access platform, enabling customers to meet the ever-evolving regulatory environment and stave off increasing cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure.

XONA enables frictionless user access that’s purpose-built for OT and other critical infrastructure environments. Technology agnostic and configured in minutes, XONA’s proprietary protocol isolation and zero-trust architecture immediately eliminates common attack vectors, while giving authorized users seamless and secure control of operational technology from any location or device.

“We’re quickly expanding our team to support our energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, and government partners as they respond to the cybersecurity challenges associated with remote operations capacity,” Bill Moore, founder and CEO of XONA Systems, said in a media statement. “With new funding and strategic support from EIP, we are positioned for hypergrowth over the next few years.”

The funding round for XONA’s solution occurs as industrial enterprises are experiencing a significant transition from on-site control room operations to hybrid remote and mobile models. While remote work empowers companies to respond to shifting employee preferences and operational realities, it introduces new cybersecurity vulnerabilities that risk people, property, and profits.

In addition to further strengthening the XONA team, the newly secured funding will accelerate product development, including growing strategic OEM and technology alliances and providing richer user access analytics.

“We are thrilled to partner with XONA in this next phase of growth. Remote access for O) is one of the fastest-growing product categories, and XONA’s product stands out for its unique time-to-value, ease of use, and robust security features designed specifically for OT environments,” said Tansel Ismail, Vice President at Energy Impact Partners. “We see significant opportunities for solutions like XONA, especially in light of the major wave of VPN replacement and digital transformation initiatives. This partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to supporting innovative technologies that help accelerate digital transformation and support the energy transition.”

In the last few years, operational asset owners have recognized the often urgent need to provide users, such as third-party vendors, partners, contractors, technicians, and other external IT staff, with remote operations access to support the unique requirements of process control environments in critical infrastructure industries. But traditional remote access solutions, such as virtual private networks, open the door to cyber-attacks and breaches like ransomware attacks.

With the market taking off, especially since the COVID pandemic exposed the need, XONA is focused on serving the secure remote access needs of industrial operations.

XONA’s secure and intuitive platform combines strong multi-factor authentication (MFA), asset and protocol isolation, role and time-based access controls, moderated access and file transfer, as well as user session logging and recording.