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Snyk, the maker of software used by developers at tech behemoths like Google to fix vulnerable code announced on Thursday that it closed a $530-million funding round, co-led by Sands Capital and Tiger Global, at a valuation of $8.5 billion.

That is more than triple its valuation when the year began.

The startup revealed the details of some of its data points about growth during the funding round, which explained the meteoric rise of its valuation. The most notable was that it reported annual recurring revenue was up 154% from a year ago.

Snyk develops a renowned tool that alerts software teams when they have code with cybersecurity issues. The open-source version of this tool is used by millions of coders globally, including at big tech firms like Atlassian, Salesforce, and Google.

The startup also has a paid line of offerings that have enhanced vulnerability detection features that it reports have been adopted by about 1,200 organizations so far.

Making vulnerability checking automated during development offers two central benefits. It lowers the risk of data breaches by facilitating the resolution of cybersecurity problems before they become part of apps and improve productivity by reducing the amount of time spent fixing flawed code.

Snyk’s secret sauce

Snyk is not the only one doing vulnerability detection. The startup says that it sets itself apart because of its detection engine, which is touted to be up to 50 times faster than the competition.

That is why Snyk is at the top of this particular market.

With higher detection speed, the time developers spend to detect vulnerabilities is cut down. For now, the startup is investing heavily to expand its product portfolio and has hired more than 320 people this year to that end.