Workspot Raises $6.5M for Mobile Workspaces

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Workspot, a Cupertino, Calif.-based mobile “workspace-as-a-service” specialist, announced today that the startup raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round, headed by Helion Ventures.

Qualcomm Ventures, the mobile chipmaker’s investment arm, and Trans link Capital also backed the transaction. The company previously raised $3.3 million from angel investors, Qualcomm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Webb Investment Network.

Amitabh Sinha, CEO of Workspot, said in a statement that the infusion of cash will enable his company “to tackle the needs of the evolving mobile enterprise and allow us to scale up on bringing our 100 percent cloud-based solution to more end users and IT administrators.” His company platform delivers “a much simpler, cost effective BYOD solution, while giving employees a secure contained workspace on their devices,” he boasted.

Workspot’s platform works by connecting an organization’s existing SSL-VPN infrastructure to deliver business applications and data access, like SharePoint, SAP and file shares, to iOS and Android devices, with no additional hardware.

The platform supports Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances, Dell SonicWALL Secure Remote Access, Juniper SA SSL-VPN and F5. Microsoft Active Directory and RSA SecurID authentication are also supported. Workspot pricing starts at $10 per user per month (paid annually).

The cloud-based Workspot Control app provides administrators with management, monitoring, policy enforcement and rapid deployment tools. The iOS and Android Workspot apps provide virtualized, unified access to a suite of corporate defined apps and network resources.

In terms of security, the platform features end-to-end encryption and built-in data loss prevention. As an added security measure, the mobile app is locked with a user specified PIN that is not stored on a given device. Jailbreak detection prevents access to the app on suspect devices.

Customers don’t have to worry that crafty hackers will target their Workspot accounts. “No business data or end user credentials passes through the Workspot cloud – it is only a control plane,” claimed the company in a statement.

Containerized workspaces have emerged as a way for mobile device management (MDM) providers to keep business and personal data separate. As a perk, it allows businesses to generally avoid the cost and administrative overhead of managing and securing employee-owned devices. BlackBerry’s Secure Work Space and portions of Dell’s Enterprise Mobility Management suite offer the capability.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Small Business Computing. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.