At a glance.
- Dragos raises $200 million in Series D round.
- US sanctions four spyware firms, including NSO Group.
Mergers and acquisitions.
IBM Security plans to acquire endpoint threat response platform provider ReaQta. The company stated, "This move will expand IBM's capabilities in the extended detection and response (XDR) market, aligning with IBM's strategy to deliver security with an open approach that extends across disparate tools, data and hybrid cloud environments."
CrowdStrike will acquire Santa Clara, California-based zero-trust security company SecureCircle. The company stated, "With this acquisition, CrowdStrike will extend its industry leading Zero Trust endpoint security device and identity capabilities to include data. The all cash transaction is expected to close during CrowdStrike’s fiscal fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions."
Russian cybersecurity and antivirus firm Kaspersky has acquired Massachusetts-based SASE provider Brain4Net. Kaspersky stated, "By acquiring Brain4Net, Kaspersky aims to bring a completely new SASE offering to the market as a unified platform which will combine Kaspersky’s best-in-class security solutions and technologies with Brain4Net’s network orchestration and control capabilities and expertise. Due to this strategic move, Kaspersky will be able to offer its enterprise customers both security and connectivity services."
New York-based cybersecurity platform provider BlueVoyant has acquired Washington, DC-based supply chain security company 202 Group. The company stated, "This acquisition will combine the capabilities of BlueVoyant’s powerful cloud-native, third-party cyber risk management solution with 202 Group’s supply chain risk management solution to create a new offering, BlueVoyant Supply Chain Command™."
Swedish network security company Clavister has acquired AI-driven cybersecurity provider Omen Technologies (also based in Sweden). Clavister stated, "The acquisition of Omen immediately strengthens Clavister’s offering in Defence with significant identified upsell potential into the Clavister defence customer base as well as opportunities to grow amongst Omen’s attractive pipeline of customers. From a solution sales perspective, Omen is already working closely with Clavister’s CyberArmour team for technical integration with Clavister products. In the next two years, Omen’s technology will also be fully integrated into Clavister’s SASE solution to add artificial intelligence-based threat detection to cloud-delivered security."
ManTech International Corporation has agreed to acquire Washington, DC-based systems engineering firm Gryphon Technologies from AE Industrial Partners for $350 million. ManTech stated, "The acquisition adds over 1,500 highly skilled employees to the ManTech team and will expand ManTech’s DoD footprint and suite of capability offerings with signature digital engineering solutions."
Jacobs has agreed to acquire Maryland-based high-performance software provider BlackLynx. Jacobs stated, "At closing, BlackLynx will expand Jacobs' position to 14 of 18 U.S. Intelligence Community agencies and will be aligned with Jacobs' Cyber & Intelligence business unit under the leadership of Caesar Nieves, Senior Vice President. Both companies see strong opportunities to apply BlackLynx's technology and software to support government services as well as critical infrastructure sectors of transportation, water and smart cities."
Investments and exits.
Maryland-based industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos has raised $200 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $1.7 billion. The company stated, "The funding round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, an investment arm of Koch Industries, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, a leading global asset manager. Investors include Emerson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Allegis Cyber, Canaan, DataTribe, Energy Impact Partners, National Grid Partners, Schweitzer Engineering Labs, Global Reserve Group, and Rockwell Automation." Dragos says the funding "will continue to accelerate the company’s global expansion and support customers in key growth markets across diverse industries including electric, oil & gas, chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, water, and manufacturing."
Sacramento, California-based network automation company Gluware has raised $43 million in a growth funding round led by Bain Capital, with participation from Acadia Woods Partners and existing investors. The company stated, "The funding will go towards scaling the company's sales and marketing functions and the continued advancement of Gluware's intelligent network automation platform."
Chicago-based fraud prevention firm FingerprintJS has raised $32 million in a Series B round led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures. According to VentureBeat, "the new capital will be put toward supporting the creation of new developer tools and further developing FingerprintJS’ existing line of products."
New Zealand-based anti-money laundering company First AML has raised NZ$30 million in a Series B round led by Blackbird Ventures, with participation from Headline Ventures and existing investors Eliot Crowther, Icehouse Ventures, and Bedrock. According to Startup Daily, "The funds will be used to double the team from 90 to 180 employees globally by the end of 2022, as well as global expansion into Europe."
Pleasanton, California-based phishing defense firm SlashNext has raised $26 million in a Series B round led by Tom and Matt Gallo, Telia Group, and the ACTIVE Fund of the Ayala group, with participation from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Wing Venture Capital, and Alter Ventures. According to VentureBeat, the company "plans to put the capital toward scaling its customer acquisition and operations and driving distribution partnerships with managed security service providers, OEMs, and carriers, including strategic investors Telia Telecom and Globe Telecom."
Elementus, a New York-based blockchain analytics company associated with Palantir, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Velvet Sea Ventures, with participation from Alameda Research, BlockFi, Pomp Investments, Lightspeed, Gemini Frontier Fund, Blockchain.com, and Avon Ventures, CoinDesk reports. CoinDesk says the funding "will help advance the company’s institutional-grade intelligence platform."
Mountain View, California-based IoT vulnerability management firm Viakoo has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Shasta Ventures, with participation from existing investors Stanley Black & Decker, PivotNorth Capital, and Blue Fog Capital. The company stated, "This latest round will be used to expand executive leadership, and investment in product development and go-to-market. The company is also launching its Viakoo Action Platform™ suite of cyber modules, which remediate and repatriate IoT devices, meeting the growing demand for enterprise IoT device management and vulnerability remediation at scale."
Israeli application security testing company Oxeye has raised $5.3 million in a seed round led by MoreVC, with participation from i3 Equity Partners and others. The company says the funding "will be used to complete product development, increase mindshare around the company’s novel approach, and expand sales, marketing and operations."
Irish encryption-as-a-service company Vaultree has raised $3.3 million in a seed round led by Ten Eleven Ventures, with participation from Enterprise Ireland, Unpopular Ventures, HBAN, and John N. Stewart. The company stated, "With this latest funding, Vaultree will continue developing a market-ready product to provide customers with a fully end-to-end encrypted data protection solution that is scalable and easy to use. Vaultree's team will continue to grow with the hiring of more engineering, cryptography, sales, and customer facing staff."
Boston-based DevSecOps firm Wabbi has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Mendoza Ventures, with participation from Cisco Investments. The company says it "will use the capital to scale its team to accommodate growing customer demand."
Executive moves.
NSO Group has announced a new leadership structure, stating, "Shalev Hulio, the Founder and CEO of NSO Group, announced today he will assume a new role in NSO’s leadership, as a Vice Chairman of the Board and as the Global President....Isaac (Itzik) Benbenisti, the current co-President, will be appointed to the role of the CEO, reporting to the Board of Directors. The new structure will come into effect in the next few weeks. The new position will allow Hulio to remain a dominant and vital part of NSO Group’s leadership, while further developing the company’s innovative solutions it offers its customers worldwide. Hulio will work closely with the Board of Directors, as well as with Isaac, NSO Group’s new CEO."
Sumo Logic has appointed Lynne Doherty as President of Worldwide Field Operations. Doherty previously served as EVP of Global Sales and Marketing at McAfee.
OwlGaze has appointed Miro Pihkanen as Chief Security Officer and board member. Pihkanen most recently served as Deloitte's Cyber Lead Partner for Hong Kong & Macau.
KnowBe4 has promoted Lecio De Paula Jr. to Vice President of Data Protection.
Cobalt has hired Russ Cobb as Chief Marketing Officer. Cobb previously served as Chief Marketing Officer at IronNet.
Tanium has appointed Steve Daheb as Chief Marketing Officer. Daheb previously served as CMO at ON24.
Virsec has appointed Emmi Nguy as Vice President of Finance & Operations, Marcelo Oliveira as Vice President of Product Management, Thomas Schaeffer as Vice President of People, and Jason Stutt as Senior Vice President of North America Sales.
BOXX Insurance has hired Dominic Steptoe as Global Chief Product Officer. Steptoe previously served as Head of Consumer Business and Chief Marketing Officer at Swisscard.
Tessian has hired Allen Lieberman as its Chief Product Officer.
Deep Instinct has appointed Scott Stout as Vice President of Americas Sales and Brian Feeney as Vice President of Global Channels and MSSPs.
BioCatch has hired Timothy Sadler as SVP of Sales and Operations.
Trulioo has appointed Shradha Mittal as Senior Vice President of People & Culture. Mittal previously served as Head of Talent and People Operations at Framework Venture Partners.
SynSaber has added Mark Weatherford and Ali Golshan to its advisory board.
Authomize has added Paul Trulove as an advisor.
Companies in the news.
The US Department of Commerce has sanctioned four companies for providing spyware to foreign governments. The sanctioned companies are Israel's NSO Group and Candiru, Russia's Positive Technologies, and Singapore's Computer Security Initiative Consultancy. Commerce stated:
"NSO Group and Candiru (Israel) were added to the Entity List based on evidence that these entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers. These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent. Such practices threaten the rules-based international order.
"Positive Technologies (Russia), and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE. LTD. (Singapore) were added to the Entity List based on a determination that they traffic in cyber tools used to gain unauthorized access to information systems, threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide."