At a glance.
- GBG to acquire Acuant.
- Lacework raises $1.3 billion in Series D round.
Mergers and acquisitions.
London-based fraud prevention company GBG has agreed to acquire Los Angeles-headquartered identity verification firm Acuant for $736 million. GBG stated, "A long-time partner, Acuant has a product suite that is a natural complement to GBG’s existing US-based services from IDology. The acquisition creates a leader in the strategically important North American market and accelerates the rollout of GBG’s identity and fraud solutions globally."
San Francisco-headquartered fraud prevention company Sift has acquired London-based passwordless authentication company Keyless. Sift stated, "Keyless’ technology meets the Strong Authentication Compliance requirements of PSD2, is FIDO Certified, and helps online businesses more easily meet the requirements of GDPR. Sift will offer Keyless products to regulated businesses and online merchants around the world."
IT services company Unisys, based in Pennsylvania, has acquired Paris-based Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) company Mobinergy. Unisys says it "will focus on growing Mobinergy activities globally to expand its UEM business."
German multinational retail giant Schwarz Group has acquired attack path management company XM Cyber for $700 million. The company stated, "With the acquisition, the Schwarz Group prepares for future challenges regarding IT security. For XM Cyber, this presents myriad opportunities for continued growth and accelerated innovation. XM Cyber will continue to operate independently, offering its full suite of products under its current brand and support structure, and will remain committed to supporting its global customer base with the same outstanding service its customers enjoy today."
Investments and exits.
San Jose, California-based cloud security automation company Lacework has raised $1.3 billion in a Series D round led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global Management, with participation from new investors including Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Durable Capital, Franklin Templeton, General Catalyst, XN, and existing investors Coatue, Dragoneer, Liberty Global Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures. The funding brings the company's valuation to $8.3 billion. The company stated, "Lacework will use this funding to extend its lead in the cloud security market by fueling product innovation that expands the company’s total addressable market and pursuing additional strategic acquisitions, like the recently announced Soluble transaction. The addition of Soluble enhances the capabilities of the Lacework Cloud Security Platform to further enable organizations to integrate security practices earlier in their software delivery process. The company will also scale go-to-market strategies, growing the Lacework workforce and the company’s presence globally to better serve customers."
Managed detection and response provider Expel, based in the Northern Virginia town of Herndon, has raised $140.3 million in a Series E round led by CapitalG and Paladin Capital Group, with participation from Cisco Investments, March Capital, and existing investors Index Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Greycroft. The company says it "will use the new funding to invest in product research and development, introduce new capabilities, fuel amplified sales and go-to-market initiatives, expand partner relationships, accelerate international expansion and further mature business operations to continue delivering high-quality detection and response."
San Francisco-based cyber insurance firm Resilience has raised $80 million in a Series C round led by General Catalyst and Rapid7's Corey Thomas, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Charles River Ventures, Shield Capital, and Intact Ventures. The company stated, "This financing enables Resilience to accelerate delivery of Insure + Secure solutions more broadly in North America and now globally."
XDR provider Stellar Cyber, of Santa Clara, California, has raised $38 million in a Series B round led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors Valley Capital Partners, SIG, Northern Light Venture Capital, and new strategic investor Samsung. 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."
Israeli public cloud security startup Laminar has emerged from stealth with $37 million in seed and Series A funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from SentinelOne, TLV Partners, and Meron Capital, TechCrunch reports.
Paris-based cybersecurity firm Evina has raised €20 million (US$22.3 million) in a funding round led by led by Radian Capital, with participation from existing investors including 50 partners, SaaS Partners, and Id4 ventures. The company says the funding "will allow Evina to accelerate its commercial presence outside Europe, with the opening of offices abroad, and to strengthen its technical team with new talent, in order to consolidate its position as a leader in the world of financial services for telecom operators."
Israeli IoT security firm Shield-IoT has raised $7.4 million in a Series A round led by NextLeap Ventures and Bloc Ventures, with participation from Atlas Ventures, Akamai Technologies, SpringTide Ventures, DIVEdigital, and Janvest Capital Partners, VentureBeat reports.
Tel Aviv-based low code/no code application security platform provider Zenity has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Vertex Ventures and UpWest. According to SecurityWeek, the funding "will go toward expanding customer acquisition, marketing, product, and research and development operations."
Executive moves.
Invicti Security has appointed Michael George as CEO. George previously served as CEO of Continuum. Invicti's current CEO Ferruh Mavituna will serve as a strategic advisor.
BigBear.ai has appointed Samuel Gordy as Chief Operating Officer and President of Federal, Jeffry Dyer as President of Commercial, and Claire Morse as Chief Human Resources Officer.
Cyber Defense Labs has promoted its Chief Technology Officer Michael Spotts to Chief Operating Officer. Jason Lobell, the company's Managing Director of Cyber Managed Security Services and Deputy Chief Technology Officer, will be promoted to Chief Technology Officer.
Presidio has hired Dan Lohrmann as Field Chief Information Security Officer for the Public Sector. Lohrmann has previously served as CISO at Security Mentor and the state of Michigan.
Bugcrowd has hired Ravi Chopra as Chief Financial Officer. Chopra previously served as CFO at SonicWall.
Blumira has appointed Helen Leonard as Chief of Staff, Jon-Eric Cornellier as Director of Marketing, Jeremy Young as Director of Partner Strategy, and Heidi Craun as Senior Director of Customer Experience.
Cybersixgill has hired Gabi Reish as Chief Business Development and Product Officer and Christopher Strand as Chief Risk and Compliance Officer.
Netskope has hired John Giacomini as Senior Vice President of Sales for North America. Giacomini previously served as Chief Revenue Officer at Agari.
ExtraHop has hired Tanya Hovagimian as channel manager for Australia and New Zealand, CRN reports.
Companies in the news.
The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency is seeking to award contracts to up to three companies to provide cybersecurity services for NATO projects, Shepard Media reports. The contracts could be worth up to €30 million over the course of two years.