At a glance.
- Immersive Labs acquires Snap Labs.
- Netography raises $45 million in Series A round.
- Booz Allen Hamilton spins off SnapAttack.
Mergers and acquisitions.
UK-based cybersecurity training firm Immersive Labs has acquired Pennsylvania-based cybersecurity gamification company Snap Labs. Immersive Labs CEO James Hadley stated, "From day one we have believed in the power of immersive experiences. Whether you are a CEO wrestling with the wicked problems of a cyber crisis exercise or a malware analyst decompiling the latest APT, nothing is better for building and evidencing cyber knowledge, skills and judgement. The acquisition of Snap Labs doubles down on this, allowing customers to build better cyber workforces with richly detailed realistic experiences pinpointed to the risk they face. We welcome the team to Immersive Labs and look forward to building on our joint vision together."
Florida-based threat intelligence company Team Cymru has acquired Tel Aviv-based attack surface management provider Amplicy. The company stated that the acquisition "will support Team Cymru's global growth initiatives."
Florida-based security awareness training company KnowBe4 has completed its acquisition of SecurityAdvisor.
Investments and exits.
Annapolis, Maryland-based network detection and response firm Netography has raised $45 million in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and SYN Ventures, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Mango Capital, Harpoon Ventures, and Wing Venture Capital. The company says the "new capital will be applied toward new technology innovations and enhancements, channel expansion, and sales." The company has also hired Ben Holladay as Chief Revenue Officer and Dan Ramaswami as Vice President of Field Engineering.
Santa Clara, California-based XDR platform provider Stellar Cyber has raised $38 million in an oversubscribed Series B round led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Samsung and existing investors Valley Capital Partners, SIG, and Northern Light Venture Capital. The company's CEO and co-founder Changming Liu stated, "The Series B investment enables Stellar Cyber to continue leading the Open XDR market by driving innovation, increasing our market footprint, supporting partner expansion, and hiring extraordinary talent."
Austin, Texas-based firmware security company NetRise has emerged from stealth with $6.8 million in seed funding led by Miramar Digital Ventures, with participation from Sorenson Ventures, DNX Ventures, and angel investors. The company says the funding "will facilitate product development advancements, channel relationships, go-to-market sales, and building a world-class team."
Fintech compliance company Sedric has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by StageOne Ventures. The company says it "will use the funding to support its global expansion and onboard its growing base of new fintech customers."
London and Amsterdam-based autonomous red-teaming startup Hadrian has raised €2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Village Global and Slimmer AI, EU-Startups reports.
Israeli cloud security company Aqua Security has received a strategic investment from Capital One Ventures and added Capital One CISO Chris Betz to its executive advisory board.
Industrial cybersecurity startup Armexa has received a strategic investment from Audubon Companies.
Executive moves.
Alan Paller, founder of SANS Institute, has passed away at the age of 76. Eric Bassel, CEO of SANS, stated, "This is a profound loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He was not only a beloved colleague but a treasured friend and mentor. Alan, many years ago, set SANS on the path that we have built on year after year. His vision has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of security practitioners. His contribution to the industry was nothing short of monumental, and even in his last weeks he continued his life-long drive to make the world secure and to build the next generation of security defenders."
Splunk CEO Doug Merritt has stepped down after six years, stating, "As the Board and I considered how to best position Splunk for long-term success and continued growth, we determined now is the right time to transition to our next phase of leadership - in particular, the Board is focused on identifying a leader with a proven track record of scaling operations and growing multi-billion dollar enterprises. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside our world-class team, who I’m confident will continue to ensure Splunk is the partner of choice to the most forward-thinking and data-centric organizations on the planet." Graham Smith, Chair of Splunk's board of directors, has been appointed interim CEO, and Merritt will serve in an advisory role as the company searches for a permanent CEO.
OneSpan has appointed Matthew Moynahan as President and Chief Executive Officer. Moynahan most recently served as CEO at Forcepoint.
Protegrity has appointed Paul Mountford as its CEO. Mountford previously served as CEO at Pure Storage.
SecurID has appointed Greg Nelson as President and Chief Business Officer. Nelson previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at Omnitracs.
Exabeam has appointed Holly Grey as Chief Financial Officer. Grey most recently served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Forescout Technologies.
IntelliBridge has hired Rick Johnson as Chief Financial Officer. Johnson previously served as Vice President of Finance at Novetta.
Deduce has appointed Adish Kasi as Vice President of Sales and Andy Sheldon as Vice President of Marketing, as well as promoting Vice President Robert Panasiuk to Chief Technical Officer.
ThreatX has hired David Howell as Chief Marketing Officer.
Egress has hired Matt Biggin as Vice President of Engineering.
RealDefense has hired Avani Patel as VP of Product Management.
AuthID.ai has added Neepa Patel to its board of directors. Patel currently serves as CEO of Themis.
NINJIO has added Brett Wahlin to its board of directors. Wahlin currently serves as SVP and CISO at Activision Blizzard.
Companies in the news.
Booz Allen Hamilton is spinning off its purple-teaming platform SnapAttack as a stand-alone company. The Virginia-based defense contractor launched SnapAttack in October 2020. Susan Penfield, Chief Innovation Officer at Booz Allen, stated, "Spinning out products like SnapAttack is one example of how we incubate internally and scale externally―an approach that allows us to focus on our strength of developing leading technology, then carefully identifying the best opportunities in the market for its long-term growth. In doing so, we empower Booz Allen’s innovators to create and scale leading-edge products and obtain an equity stake in the products they help build."
Booz Allen said in a press release, "Booz Allen is maintaining a significant minority stake in the new company as well as a strategic partnership agreement to continue collaboration, further enhancing and complementing the firm’s robust threat detection management capabilities. Booz Allen will be the primary channel partner for SnapAttack to its federal client base, and this collaboration will provide clients with scalable, enhanced access to SnapAttack along with continued access to the firm's best-in-class capabilities, technology, and services. Additional investors include Volition Capital and Strategic Cyber Ventures."
SnapAttack has also raised $8 million in a funding round led by Volition Capital. The company stated, "With the funding, the company plans to accelerate platform development to further integrate across security operations processes, manage the entire lifecycle of detection analytics, and enhance reporting. In addition, it plans to drive additional threat intelligence and analytic content types into the platform to create the most robust and comprehensive detections with minimal human interaction. Key team expansion will be focused on product, engineering, and sales to drive product adoption and grow their customer base across Federal and Commercial markets."