Dec 2 (Reuters) - Panther Labs raised $120 million in fresh capital as part of an early-stage financing round led by investment manager Coatue, valuing the cloud-based security analytics platform at $1.4 billion. The Series B funding includes investments from ICONIQ Growth, Snowflake Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, S28 Capital and Innovation Endeavors, according to a statement seen by Reuters ahead of the announcement. A higher incidence of data theft since the pandemic has boosted investor interest in the technology and software sector this year that has helped startups fetch sky-high valuations. The latest round brings total funding for Panther Labs, which detects and responds to suspicious activity in real time, to $140 million. Chief Executive Officer Jack Naglieri said the pandemic played a part in the rapid adoption of its services. Panther Labs has grown its customer base by 300% in the last year. The San Francisco-based company counts file-sharing service provider Dropbox Inc (DBX.O), web apps automation firm Zapier and cyber security software startup Snyk as its customers. Last week, web development software startup Vercel doubled its valuation to $2.5 billion led by GGV Capital and backed by Accel, Tiger Global and Salesforce Ventures. read more Automation software Workato was valued at $5.7 billion in a fundraise this month and cloud software platform ActiveCampaign raised funds at a $3 billion valuation earlier this year. "The market was starving for a new platform to solve security monitoring challenges like high cost, difficulty scaling, and extensibility, and the shift to remote work made those challenges even worse," Naglieri told Reuters. Panther Labs plans to use the latest funding to ramp up product development and expand adoption of the company"s products.