Xage Security closed a $12 million Series A funding round for its blockchain-based security platform for the industrial IoT (IIoT) space.

March Capital Partners led the round with participation from GE Ventures, City Light Capital, and NexStar Partners. The startup, which launched in December 2017, said it will use the funding to develop its security fabric for edge IIoT networks and national infrastructure. It also plans to expand its technology to support decentralized energy production, 5G networking, and smart cities.

Current customers of its IoT security platform include NTT Communications, GE Renewables, and GlobaLogix.

Xage’s platform uses blockchain to connect IIoT devices, and to synchronize and store credentials, certificates, policies, and data between edge and data center locations. This centralizes security policies and control and enables user- and role-based remote access with single sign-on.

Secure access control is becoming increasingly important as the number of connected devices skyrockets — and hackers take advantage of unsecured and poorly secured devices to access companies’ data and critical systems.

New research from Armis found that enterprises are especially vulnerable to IoT attacks. Using data from its Device Knowledgebase, which includes more than 5 million device behavior profiles, the security company’s researchers estimated that more than 496 million enterprise devices worldwide are vulnerable to a DNS rebinding attack.

“From smart TVs to printers, digital assistants to IP phones and more, the exposure leaves organizations vulnerable to compromise, data exfiltration, and to devices getting hijacked for another Mirai-like attack,” wrote Ben Seri, VP of research at Armis, in a blog post.

The growing number of high-profile breaches does means it’s a good time to be a security startup seeking funding.

In addition to Xage’s Series A, several others have announced funding rounds over the past few weeks. Toka last week raised $12.5 million in seed funding to help government agencies improve their security posture. And insider threat management provider ObserveIT closed a $33 million Series B funding round, bringing its total to $58 million.