At a glance.
- Snyk raises $530 million in Series F round.
- TransUnion to acquire Neustar for $3.1 billion.
Mergers and acquisitions.
TransUnion has agreed to acquire identity resolution company Neustar for $3.1 billion. The company stated, "The acquisition expands TransUnion’s powerful digital identity capabilities through the addition of Neustar’s distinctive data and analytics, enabling consumers and businesses to transact online with greater confidence. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Neustar is expected to generate approximately $575 million of revenue and $115 million of Adjusted EBITDA in 2021. After integrating Neustar, TransUnion expects to accelerate growth through both material revenue synergies and increased participation in the fast-growing digital marketing and identity fraud marketplaces. The company anticipates material cost synergies from the combined companies, and expects the transaction to be accretive to Adjusted Diluted EPS beginning in 2023."
Maryland-based cyber risk management company Tenable will acquire Pleasanton, California-based infrastructure-as-code company Accurics for $160 million. Tenable said, "The acquisition extends Tenable’s broader cloud strategy, helping enterprises secure their full cloud stacks, both at build time and at runtime. Following the completion of the acquisition, Accurics’ solutions will integrate with Tenable.io® Container Security, an industry-leading solution integrating security into DevOps, Frictionless Assessment, which removes the need for agents or scanning to deliver continuous visibility and assessment of cloud assets, and Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, which offers simple, scalable and automated vulnerability scanning for web applications."
Booz Allen Hamilton has acquired Virginia-based digital forensics and incident response firm Tracepoint. The company explained, "This transaction is part of a broader capital deployment strategy to accelerate Booz Allen’s entry and advancement in critical technology areas....Booz Allen intends to integrate its Commercial Cyber business and Tracepoint in early 2022 as part of its long-term growth plan to create a scaled business in three key areas: incident response, enterprise consulting, and managed services."
Mastercard has agreed to acquire cryptocurrency intelligence company Menlo Park, California-based CipherTrace. Mastercard stated, "The integrated offering will build on CipherTrace’s suite of digital assets and Mastercard’s cyber security solutions to provide businesses with greater transparency to help identify and understand their risks and to help manage their digital asset regulatory and compliance obligations."
Kape Technologies has acquired ExpressVPN for $936 million. The company said that "this acquisition will broaden Kape’s reach from almost 3 million customers to serving over 6 million and will bring together a global team of 720 to drive innovation for future product offerings....Under the Kape Technologies umbrella, ExpressVPN will continue to operate day-to-day as an independent service, with its existing global team and leadership, including its two co-founders."
Overland Park, Kansas-based security policy management company FireMon has acquired Kansas City-based cloud security provider DisruptOps. According to FireMon, "Adding the DisruptOps platform immediately extends FireMon's solutions to include monitoring and responding to security risks across customers’ public cloud infrastructure. Concurrent with the acquisition, Jody Brazil, one of the original founders and product visionary behind FireMon, will return to the helm as CEO of the combined entity. After leaving FireMon, Brazil founded and built DisruptOps to enable security and development teams to find, understand, and fix critical cloud security issues – simplifying how organizations can implement and achieve DevSecOps."
Sunnyvale, California-based DevOps repository manager provider JFrog has acquired Linux and IoT device management company Upswift. The company stated, "The combined companies aim to deliver the industry’s first complete development-to-device platform that bridges the gap between current IoT software silos and common DevOps processes, such as dependency scanning, CI/CD, artifact management, shifting left for application security, software distribution and more."
New York City-based tech services company Commit has acquired Israeli software development firm ITSoft for $3 million. "ITSoft will significantly reinforce Commit’s growing global presence," Commit said, "adding over 150 software development specialists to Commit’s international roster of tech development experts."
Investments and exits.
Boston-based developer security firm Snyk has raised $530 million in a Series F round led by Sands Capital and Tiger Global, with participation from new investors Baillie Gifford, Koch Strategic Platforms, Lone Pine Capital, T. Rowe Price, Whale Rock Capital Management, and existing investors Accel, Addition, Alkeon, Atlassian Ventures, funds managed by BlackRock, Boldstart Ventures, Canaan Partners, Coatue, Franklin Templeton, Geodesic Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and Temasek. The round brings the company's valuation to $8.5 billion. The company stated, "The financing will continue to fuel Snyk's product innovation and development, set to be revealed at the company's free annual developer conference, SnykCon 2021, next month. The company plans to introduce new enhancements to its Developer Security Platform, new workflow integrations, improved functionality and new features at that time."
Boston-headquartered cybersecurity ratings company BitSight has received a $250 million investment from Moody’s Corporation, bringing the company's valuation to $2.4 billion. As part of the transaction, BitSight is acquiring VisibleRisk, "a cyber risk ratings joint venture created by Moody’s and Team8." Moody's press release states, "Moody’s will leverage BitSight’s extensive cyber risk data and research across its growing suite of integrated risk assessment product offerings. BitSight’s acquisition of VisibleRisk adds a unique in-depth cyber risk assessment capability and advances its ability to analyze and calculate an organization’s financial exposure to cyber risk."
Israeli DevSecOps company Rezilion has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Guggenheim Investments, with participation from JVP and Kindred Capital. The company stated that the investment "will be used to rapidly scale Rezilion's go-to-market approach, partnering with other DevSecOps solution providers as well as growing operations to expand its customer base across the US and Europe."
Palo Alto, California-headquartered API security startup Neosec has emerged from stealth with $20.7 million in Series A funding from True Ventures, New Era Capital Partners, TLV, SixThirty, and individual investors. The company stated, "Neosec brings established techniques from XDR (Extended Detection and Response) security products, including precise behavioral analytics, to reveal threats and business abuse hiding inside APIs."
Tel Aviv-based DataSecOps platform provider Satori has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by B Capital Group and Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from existing investor YL Ventures. The company says the funding "will fuel Satori’s continued R&D innovation and go-to-market expansion in the US."
Toronto-headquartered privacy-preserving AI company Private AI has secured $3.15 million in a seed round led by M12 and Forum Ventures. The company will use the funding "to improve their product offering, expand the team, and accelerate their acquisition of domestic and international customers."
Executive moves.
Netography has named Martin Roesch as its new CEO. Roesch is the creator of Snort and the founder and former CEO, and CTO of Sourcefire.
Microsoft has appointed its president, Brad Smith, as vice chair, CNBC reports.
Onapsis has hired Rick Hanson as Chief Operating Officer. Hanson most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer at Brightcove.
Atera has hired Lior Torem as Chief Financial Officer and Oren Elimelech as Chief Information Security Officer. Torem most recently served as CFO at Voyager Labs, and Elimelech previously served as CISO at First Digital Bank, Global CISO at Sapiens, and Director of Cybersecurity at the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.
Menlo Security has appointed Devin Ertel as Chief Information Security Officer. Ertel previously served as CISO at BlackHawk Network.
Cobalt has named Andrew Obadiaru as Chief Information Security Officer. Obadiaru previously served as Head of Information Security for BBVA USA Corporate Investment Banking.
Arvig has hired Eric Wilkens as Director of Cybersecurity.
Apiiro has named Moshe Zioni as VP of Security Research. Zioni previously served as Director of Threat Research at Akamai Technologies.
MorganFranklin Consulting has added Zubaid Kazmi as a Managing Director in the company’s cybersecurity practice.
Siege Technologies has appointed Mike Mangan as Chief Financial Officer and Dallas Hall as a member of the Board of Managers.
Peraton has appointed Mara Motherway as Senior Vice President, Government and Customer Relations. Motherway previously served as Vice President for Government Relations and Military Affairs.
Checkmarx has hired Nancy Pearson as Chief Marketing Officer. Pearson previously served as CMO at Eka Software.
LogMeIn has hired Patrick McCue as its Global Vice President of Channel Sales. McCue previously served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships at Okta.
Proton has added Sir Tim Berners-Lee to its advisory board.
Sumo Logic has added Margaret Francis to its board of directors. Francis currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer at Armory.
Atlassian has added Cloudflare co-founder Michelle Zatlyn to its board of directors, CRN reports.
SPHERE has added Chris Olsen to its board of directors.
The Chertoff Group has added Julie Dunne and Christopher Hetner as Senior Advisors.
Companies in the news.
Crunchbase cites investors who predict that China's new regulations on tech companies won't have a significant effect on investment activity in the country.
Workforce cybersecurity company SecureReview has rebranded to "SessionGuardian." The company's founder and CEO Jordan Ellington stated, "Our new SessionGuardian.com website and brand identity reflect our industry-leading position and clearly demonstrate the evolution of our endpoint security software and company."