Media Coverage

Accellion Inc. sold equity to raise $12.2 million, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month. The company offered new details on Wednesday about the "Series 3" funding announcement, which came from Menlo Park-based Riverwood Capital, a technology-focused private equity firm.

Enterprise cloud file sharing company Accellion has raised $12 million in a new Series 3 round from private equity firm Riverwood Capital. The company will use the additional funding to accelerate growth, invest in enterprise mobile file sharing products, pursue partnerships and international expansion.

The ability to share files and collaborate through a range of computing devices is fast becoming a standard in every attorney's virtual toolkit. The rocket rise of the free file-sharing service DropBox in the legal community underscores this trend. This summer's headline-grabbing snafu that left the files of users of that service accessible for hours with any password threw a spotlight on the potential security risks posed by such consumer services.

Despite monumental enterprise efforts to secure information, data breaches continue to top headlines, in part because of the way employees collaborate and share data. What's needed are enterprise-level secure collaboration tools.

Accellion, a provider of enterprise-class, secure collaboration and file sharing offerings, and MobileIron, a provider of enterprise management and security for mobile devices and apps, have partnered to help enterprises secure, manage and monitor mobile devices and the data shared via these devices.

With summer in full swing, employees across the country are heading out on vacation; likely topping their list of items to pack, mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, Androids and BlackBerries.

"It's about the whole nature by which people are sharing information, becoming more collaborative," says Skokowski. "Sharing, sending and syncing files all involve the exchange of information between internal and external people, and all have potential security and compliance risks.

There are data security implications, as well. "Mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, and BlackBerries have grown more sophisticated and are penetrating the workplace in increasing numbers, enabling access to information from anywhere, anytime on nearly any device," Paula Skokowski, chief marketing officer of Accellion, tells DBTA. "IT departments need to get ahead of the issue of how employees share information and collaborate otherwise users are left to find their own alternative solutions to share information and collaborate. Organizations are putting themselves at risk for a data breach or non-compliance, as users look to unsecure IT workarounds for sharing digital files such as dropbox-type of applications, instant messaging, thumb drives, and CDs."

Accellion is a sort of "Dropbox for enterprise" service that provides a set of security features poised to help IT managers sleep better at night. But what about mobile access? One of the key advantages to using an app like Dropbox is that I can access my files on Android and iOS devices.

This week, Accellion released its iOS version, bringing mobility to the secure file storage system.