Exabeam, a cybersecurity startup that leverages big data, machine learning, and analytics to detect and respond to cyber threats, has raised $ 50 million in a series D round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Cisco Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, Aspect Ventures, Icon Ventures, and Shlomo Kramer.

Founded in 2013, San Mateo-based Exabeam is one of a number of security information and event management (SIEM) platforms that analyzes companies’ log data sources to establish what “normal” behavior looks so it can flag abnormal activities and allocate a risk score. The more abnormal activities detected, the higher the risk score. It can take a few weeks to build up a picture of what constitutes “normality” in a company, but with access to historical data this can be reduced to days.

Exabeam had previously raised around $ 65 million in funding, including a $ 30 million raise last year, and with another $ 50 million in the bank it plans to “grow its cloud portfolio” and double down on global expansion.

“The next Splunk”

Exabeam faces a number of big-name competitors, such as Splunk, which went public on the Nasdaq six years ago. Splunk‘s shares are riding on the crest of a wave, having been at well over $ 100 for the past six months — significantly over its 2012 IPO price of $ 17. With full confidence, Exabeam claims its investors are actually touting the startup as “the next Splunk.”

“The new funding will allow us to invest heavily in our new cloud solutions and reach even more enterprises around the world,” said Exabeam CEO Nir Polak. “We are on track to overtake Splunk and be the next SIEM market leader.”

Elsewhere, AlienVault, which also operates in the SIEM realm, was snapped up by AT&T just last month. A number of big funding rounds have emerged in the broader cybersecurity sphere in recent months, including CrowdStrike, which raised $ 200 million at a $ 3 billion valuation and Cylance, which raised $ 120 million.

The SIEM cybersecurity market is reportedly set to reach $ 4.5 billion in 2019.

“After just five years in business, Exabeam is rapidly gaining market share and winning deals 70 percent of the time when pitted head-to-head with the incumbent,” added Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Ravi Mhatre. “That simply cannot be ignored.”