Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development

Tines Raises $50M to Boost Enterprise-Focused AI Technology

A workflow platform led by a DocuSign, eBay and Deloitte veteran raised $50 million to pursue market expansion and address shortcomings with existing AI technologies.

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The Series B extension funding will allow Dublin, Ireland-based Tines to devote more resources to the large enterprise market and boost adoption of its workflow technology outside the security operations center, said co-founder and CEO Eoin Hinchy. The money will address AI implementation barriers related to security and privacy and drive enhanced governance, robust audit logs and improved scalability.

"I genuinely believe AI and gen AI is the single most tectonic shift we've seen in technology in the last decade," Hinchy told Information Security Media Group. "It's incredibly exciting. It's going to transform the way most companies and products operate. But why haven't we seen greater adoption of this technology in businesses as a whole?"

The latest funding comes three years after Tines closed a $26 million Series B round led by Addition and 18 months after the company completed its first $55 million Series B extension led by Felicis, which also led the latest extension round alongside Accel. Tines, founded in 2018, employs 252 people and has been led since inception by Hinchy, who spent a combined decade at DocuSign, eBay and Deloitte.

"We'll be able to grow the team," Hinchy said. "So we'll be able to have more team serving those larger companies. And we'll also continue to invest in those enterprise-style features."

Pushing Beyond the Security Operations Center

The $50 million should help Tines achieve their objectives over the next 12 to 18 months while offering flexibility to pursue unforeseen opportunities, Hinchy said. Extending Tines' Series B once again rather than opting for a new round will reduce the administrative burden associated with the funding and allow the company to use the same governance structure and documentation to speed up the process.

Tines has been scaling revenue far faster than costs, and the company has grown sales by 200% over the past 18 months despite increasing headcount by just 30% during that time frame, Hinchy said. He sees the potential for differentiating Tines' AI capabilities from less-impressive alternatives by creating AI products and services that are secure, user-friendly and easy to integrate into existing workflows.

"We've taken a very different approach, starting with the customer problems and then building the technology," Hinchy said. "We'll be releasing and increasing our investment in AI capabilities in the product over the next little while."

With the new funding, Tines plans to expand the company's impact and reach beyond the security operations center, leveraging artificial intelligence to facilitate wider adoption across different organizational functions, Hinchy said. The Series B extension will help Tines simplify the user experience with AI while more holistically addressing security and privacy concerns, according to Hinchy.

"It's the same technology applied to different classes of workloads," he said. "For security operations teams, it's things like phishing emails, security alerts and cloud compliance. For IT teams, its things like software management, identity and access management, and employee onboarding and offboarding. But the actual technology and the platform that we provide to our customers is the exact same."

Addressing the Needs of Large Enterprises

The money also will help Tines scale operations to better serve large enterprise customers, including investments in team expansion and developing enterprise-specific features, Hinchy said. Tines goes up against legacy incumbents such as ServiceNow and Microsoft to fulfill the security and governance needs of every type of customer - from startups to Fortune 10 companies based primarily in the United States, h3 said (see: How Generative AI Helps Clients Harden Their Attack Surface)

"What's different about larger companies is the governance and safeguards required for important workflows," Hinchy said. "Because there's more people involved, they require features like robust audit logs, change control, exception monitoring, credential management. All these traditional enterprise-style features are more acutely needed in those larger companies."

From a metrics standpoint, Hinchy said, Tines closely tracks user numbers and production workflows, and it anticipates that new opportunities presented by AI technologies will enable the company to maintain or accelerate current growth rates. Delivering secure, easy-to-use AI products and services will make it easier for CISOs under pressure to adopt and integrate new technologies safely, according to Hinchy.

"The product is designed to scale out of the box by design and evolve," he said. "Since our last round, we've increased the number of automated actions we perform, which is a good proxy for how much automation we're performing on behalf of our customers."