According to data from 2015, about 3.5 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices were active. It is estimated that the number will surpass 75 billion by 2025. The Internet of Things includes everything from connected blood pressure monitors to industrial temperature sensors. Each device increases an organization's attack surface, increasing the potential for cyberattacks.

Ordr provides network-level device security based on this challenge. Founders Pandian Gnanaprakasam and Sheausong Yang, who have held positions at Cisco, Aruba Networks, and AT&T Bell Labs before cofounding Ordr in 2015 to address the so-called "visibility gap" in enterprise networks. 

In an email interview with TechCrunch, CEO Greg Murphy told the publication, "I realized enterprise security reached a breaking point when enterprises attempted to implement zero-trust policies when they could not even determine what devices were connected to their own networks."

Unmanaged IoT, Internet of medical things, and operational technology devices that couldn't be secured like traditional IT infrastructure posed the greatest threat. Indeed, breaches and ransomware risks have increased in recent years, particularly since the pandemic prompted organizations to move more devices online.

Seventy-five percent of all internet-connected infusion pumps have at least one vulnerability, a problem considering there are 10 million to 15 million medical devices in U.S. hospitals. The coordinated ransomware attack in 2017 that encrypted hundreds of thousands of computers in a matter of hours was a powerful "business accelerator" for Ordr, according to Murphy.

“Companies, Healthcare organizations realized the threat not only to privacy and security, but also to every aspect of their operations overnight as they were forced to disconnect their devices. Ordr announced today that it had raised $40 million in Series C funding from investors including Dan Warmenhoven and Dominic Orr.

Ten Eleven Ventures and Battery Ventures led the round, along with Northgate Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Unusual Ventures and several health organizations, including Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Mayo Clinic.Murphy said, somewhat vaguely, that the company's revenue has increased and that Ordr has more than 500 customers, including government agencies at all levels.

"Security teams in manufacturing and other segments are looking for devices that are secure and can be monitored.". Ordr saw a 140% increase in new customer revenue in its most recent quarter ending March 31, 2022, is deployed at three of the top six hospitals in the world, and is adopted at more than 150 manufacturing sites.".

According to Ordr, its technology can automatically identify and protect connected devices by applying policies to traffic flow and access. Startup's software, which leverages existing infrastructure, uses machine learning algorithms to build a baseline understanding of devices' behavior and flag suspicious events.

The most important thing to remember is that no software is perfect. According to an ESG report from 2021, nearly half of all alerts from cybersecurity tools are false positives, and 75% of companies spend as much or more time reviewing them than they do on actual attacks.

However, Murphy believes Ordr's solution stands out because it offers visibility into devices and risks, its "behavioral profiling" capabilities, and its automated enforcement policies across multiple networking and security products.

"As devices are deterministic, they exhibit specific behaviour depending on their function, allowing Ordr to detect abnormal behaviors. "Ordr dynamically generates zero trust enforcement policies using these machine learning models," Murphy said.

The Ordr platform collects 1,000 attributes for every device, including data from close to 70 technology partners. By incorporating feedback loops from customers and partners, data models are built based on use cases and incorporate a continuous learning model.

Ordr's competitors include Palo Alto Networks' Zingbox, Armis, Claroty's Medigate, Vdoo, Sternum, and Karamba Security, which make cybersecurity tools for IoT and embedded systems. Yet despite economic headwinds, cybersecurity has plenty of venture capital. The fourth quarter of 2017 saw a record $21.8 billion invested in cybersecurity companies, according to Crunchbase data.

The Ordr platform can help organizations be more efficient in their operations, as well as optimize maintenance schedules and support asset management/purchasing decisions for CIOs by enabling device utilization insights," Murphy said.

 "Business slowdowns affect IT operating budgets, and those funds will naturally be allocated to mission-critical initiatives and basic cyber hygiene. Ordr is well-positioned to expand even in a challenging macroeconomic environment given that the number of connected devices is increasing and cyber attacks are also on the rise."

Venture capital has been raised by Ordr to date in excess of $90 million. According to Murphy, Ordr plans to double its 80-person workforce within the next year by strengthening its marketing, customer success, and engineering teams and investing in its partners.

According to Murphy, the funds will be used to strengthen the company's go-to-market abilities. In terms of technology, investments will be used to integrate Ordr with leading security solutions and simplify workflows for all users, thus allowing Ordr to become an enterprise single source of truth for connected devices.