Claroty expands into APJ region with HQ in Singapore

Claroty has further established its presence in the Asia–Pacific region with the opening of its regional headquarters office in Singapore. Under the leadership of Eddie Stefanescu, General Manager of Asia–Pacific and Japan (APJ) at Claroty, the company has experienced hyper growth in the region, having doubled its client base and achieved 250% growth in revenue year-over-year from the first half (1H) of 2020 to 1H 2021. The company has also tripled its headcount in the region over the last year, with hiring occurring across seven countries.

The office opening comes after Claroty’s US$140 million in its Series D financial round, which included participation from Temasek. The company raised the round in order to meet rapidly accelerating global demand for The Claroty Platform’s visibility, threat detection, risk and vulnerability management, and secure remote access capabilities by expanding into new regions and verticals. Yaniv Vardi, CEO of Claroty, noted that with most of the region working remotely, demand for digital services in APJ is growing, and with digitalisation comes inherent risk. Vardi added that in the industrial world, that risk is particularly high as previously isolated operational technology (OT) networks become more integrated with information technology (IT) networks, and thus exposed to a host of cyber threats they were not designed to face. “Our expansion in APJ is a reflection of this growing demand as well as the success we’ve achieved to date in the region, and we look forward to working with our strong ecosystem of partners to continue building upon this success,” Vardi said.

Spending on IT cybersecurity in the region has also increased, as large-scale cyber incidents impacting critical industrial operations have become more pronounced. Such incidents have made regulators aware that they need to prioritise the security of critical national infrastructure, whether publicly or privately held. Therefore, regional agencies are assessing how they will mandate that incident-reporting procedures and cybersecurity practices be installed and required of companies which operate in certain sectors, especially those in energy, oil and gas, transportation, finance, health care, and food and beverage. Claroty’s remit with existing customers in the region has expanded, as their industrial cybersecurity programs continue to mature.

Stefanescu stated that it takes specialist knowledge and experience to implement cybersecurity for OT networks, adding that what differentiates Claroty is the depth of visibility it has into those networks when its platform is implemented. “That’s why public and private entities, including Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners (Australia, Pacific, Indonesia), BHP, IRPC Public Company Limited and Aboitiz Power, are investing in Claroty,” Stefanescu said.

According to Stefanescu, Claroty is a strong partner for companies in the oil and gas, utilities, manufacturing, water and electrical power industries, with its customer base broadening to include the food and beverage sector, and the pharmaceutical sector, for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Vardi added that the company secures every connected device within the four walls of an industrial site, including IT, Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) assets. Stefanescu qualified this for the APJ region, stating, “Throughout the pandemic, with increasing remote connections, we expanded our capabilities to help our customers secure their IoT devices within the bounds of the industrial environment.”

Backed and adopted by leading industrial automation vendors, Claroty grew its partner base in the region by 70% over the past year, with partners including KPMG, Yokogawa Engineering Asia, Tesserent, SiS International Limited and Inflow Technologies.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Hanoi Photography