Secret Security Startups Score Cash

Stealth-mode startups ConSentry and Nevis Networks both announced venture capital funding and new hires today as they set about building devices to secure the local area network (LAN).

ConSentry clinched $17 million in a Series C funding round and lured a bunch of new executives from Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), and Extreme Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR).

Existing investors Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital were involved in ConSentry's round, along with new backer Invesco Private Capital. The cash influx bring ConSentrys total funding to $31 million.

Fellow Californian startup Nevis completed a $12.5 million follow-on to its Series B round, which included input from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Blue Run Ventures, and New Path Ventures, and announced a new CEO (see Nevis Names CEO, Gets $12.5M).

At this stage, both firms are playing their technology cards close to the vest, though Faizel Lakhani, ConSentry’s vice president of marketing, told NDCF that the Milpitas, Calif.-based firm will launch its first product in the third or fourth quarter of this year. “It’s basically an in-line device that controls what users can do on the network, such as what applications they run and what resources they are allowed to access.”