• by Ray Schultz , June 29, 2020

Area 1 Security, a preemptive email security company, has raised $25 million in funding, bringing its total financing to $82.5 million. And it has named Patrick Sweeney as CEO. 

The funding round was led by new investor ForgePoint Capital, with participation by current investors Kleiner Perkins, Icon Ventures and Top Tier Capital.

Alberto Yepez, co-founder and managing director of ForgePoint Capital, will join the Area 1 board.

Previously, Sweeney served as CEO of Talari Networks, a firm sold to Oracle in 2019. He also held senior executive positions at Dell and SonicWall. 

Area 1 focuses on the earliest stages of an attack  combining this approach with analytics to “stop phishing campaigns prior to their inflicting damage,” Sweeney states.

The firm claims it has intercepted $273 million worth of cyber fraud in the first half of 2020.