We are proud in being part in building the success of Guardium.

Guardium is a great example that the VC/Startup model is not broken.  Aside from the Outstanding Team and great technology, which is a must in all successes, Capital Efficiency is the key for the success of the VC/Startup model. With an investment of only $21 million, all participants have done extremely well, from founders, through management to the investors.

Back in 2002, Log-On and the founders presented Cedar with the concept of protecting enterprise databases. The Cedar team thought that it’s a ‘category building’ company that needs to be close to the market and the early adopters, which where in the U.S.  Cedar decided to invest in Guardium and build the company in the Boston area.  Boston is one of the major financial hubs that were the potential early adopters, and is near Cedar Fund’s U.S.office. This was important as Cedar could assist Guardium closely in its build-out. 

Immediately after the investment, Cedar set out to build the Guardium team.  Cedar recruited CEO Ram Metser, whom we knew from the Boston Israeli community. We also recruited the chief technologist, Dr .Ron Ben Natan, who worked with Amnon Shoham in the past and lived in Boston at the time. With this top team in place, Guardium's management took charge, came up with their own vision and executed on it.  Cedar continued to help as investors and directors by providing more funding, strategic advice and pulling connections to make the company succeed in this competitive market.

Ram Metser, Guardium’s CEO commented: "Cedar had a far reaching vision on what can become of this segment.  I want to commend Cedar and Amnon Shoham for their continued support during this seven-year journey as my management team and I were building Guardium to execute on this vision and, of course, for convincing me to join at the onset of the Company."

Guardium’s , CTO & VP R&D, Dr. Ron Ben Natan added, "Cedar, which introduced me and Ram to Guardium, was active in the early days in a role that few VCs take on, helping to make decisions that are intuitive in nature when hard facts do not exist yet and there is little time to waste. This is my second time around working with Cedar - and I expect more to come."

In Cedar’s view Guardium is a showcase for every startup company. Bring in the best management possible to carry the task. Don’t follow the herd. Outline your own vision. Make sure that you are aiming at a big market. Build the best product possible with unique technology and great delivery. Execute. Build the right DNA in your company. Spend just the right amount of money to build great value to all participants. Value the power of partnerships. Further execute.Continue to grow your revenue while watching the bottom line. And yes, when the opportunity knocks execute on that as well. 

In our mind, the acquisition of Guardium by IBM is only a step in making the vision of safeguarding data a reality in every enterprise in the world. It is great being part of making such vision a reality.

“[Guardium’s] acquisition is another significant step in expanding our abilities to help clients govern and monitor data, and ultimately making their information more secure throughout its life cycle.”
Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management. 

Looking into the future, we are continuing our investment in early stage companies – we believe that its all about the right teams, innovation and execution. We believe that the future will be shaped by today’s entrepreneurs with their dreams and bold vision. These people and their startups are building the big waves of tomorrow. We would like to continue and be there with investments and good advise to assist our companies in getting to market and achieving success.