Mobile security specialists Lookout has secured $55 million (£35m) in funding from Deutsche Telekom, Qualcomm and Peter Thiel's Mitril fund.

Lookout Secures £35 million Funding
Lookout has secured strategic funding of $55 million from, among others, Deutsche Telecom and Qualcomm. (Lookout)

The funding will help Lookout to expand its European operations said the company, as well as aid it in launching an enterprise product in early 2014.

The strategic financing round was led by Deutsche Telekom with chipmaker Qualcomm, through its venture capital arm Qualcomm Ventures, and top venture capital firms Greylock Partners and the Peter Thiel-backed Mithril Capital Management also investing.

Current investors Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Khosla Venture all participated in the round.

Lookout currently offers security products for smartphones running the Android and iOS operating systems and has expanded rapidly in the last 12 months. The company currently has 200 employees globally with offices in London and San Francisco.

International expansion

Lookout said the new capital will be used to "continue international expansion, extend Lookout's reach by moving into the enterprise and invest in security beyond the mobile device."

The company's app is currently in use on 45 million smartphones and tablets around the world but it will be hoping to dramatically expand that footprint with the launch of Lookout for Business later this year to help protect business from the increasing threat of cyber-attacks.

Lookout's protection system is based on crowd-sourcing threats meaning the more people using the platform the better protected they will all be. "Lookout's security platform is comprised of the world's largest mobile threat dataset, providing Lookout with the unique ability to identify threats before they have a chance to disrupt business or affect a person's mobile experience," the company said in a statement.

Partnerships

Lookout has already a number of partnerships in place with telecoms companies including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Sprint, and T-Mobile t provide security software to their customers, and this type of partnership is one of the main reasons Deutsche Telecom got involved:

"Lookout's experience in developing leading-edge security applications for this new dynamic environment makes them the ideal partner for us in this category of device solution. By partnering with Lookout, we're investing in the future of mobile to make sure it's a delightful, secure experience for everyone," said Heikki Mäkijärvi, SVP global strategic partnerships Deustche Telekom.

Serial investor Peter Thiel said: "We like to sponsor technologies that can reset established markets. Ajay Royan and I see Lookout connecting three platforms crucial to the future of computing: mobile, big data, and security. We were really impressed by Lookout's leadership as well as their mobile security expertise and their data-driven approach to security positions."

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