At a glance.
- Zimperium to be acquired by Liberty Strategic Capital.
- Spyware vendor FinFisher claims insolvency.
Mergers and acquisitions.
Dallas, Texas-based mobile device security company Zimperium is being acquired by Washington, DC-based private equity firm Liberty Strategic Capital for approximately $525 million. The company stated, "The investment will enable Zimperium to continue accelerating its growth, both organically and via strategic acquisitions. SoftBank Corp., which has been an investor in Zimperium since 2017, will continue as a minority investor." Liberty Strategic Capital's founder Steven Mnuchin, former US Secretary of the Treasury, will chair Zimperium's board of directors.
Investments and exits.
Israeli cloud data security company Cyera has emerged from stealth with $60 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Accel and Cyberstarts. The company says the "investment will be used to develop the functionality and features of the market's leading cloud data security platform, incorporating feedback from customers over the following months."
Santa Barbara, California-based security and compliance company Theta Lake has raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with participation from RingCentral Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Zoom Video Communications, and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Neotribe Ventures, and Cisco Investments. The company's co-founder and CEO Devin Redmond stated, "This is the perfect time to accelerate Theta Lake’s market contribution - from the platform roadmap to more resources to support customers to expanded partnerships and sales teams."
Boston-headquartered consumer privacy startup Cloaked has secured $25 million in a Series A round led by Lux Capital and Human Capital. The company says it "will use this funding to continue to improve its technology and exit beta, scale its team, and establish meaningful partnerships within the industry."
Florida-based vulnerability management company Nucleus Security has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Lead Edge Capital, with participation from existing investor Arthur Ventures. The company says the funding "will be used to accelerate product development and enhance customer experience, scale engineering and support services, expand Nucleus’ presence in APAC, as well as invest in the company’s people and culture."
Emeryville, California-headquartered identity security and governance company Clear Skye has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Storm Ventures and Toba Capital, with participation from Point Field Partners and Inner Loop Capital. Clear Skye stated, "The company will use these funds to expand its team, global footprint, and to continue reimagining the approach to enterprise identity governance and security. To achieve this, the company has expanded its leadership team welcoming a new CMO, Erin Duncan, who previously led product marketing at Saviynt; Jackson Shaw, Chief Strategy Officer, who led product management at Dell, One Identity, and Forcepoint; Mike Tierney, Senior Vice President, Customer Success; and Jen Ilsley, Vice President, HR and Operations. Arun Penmetsa, Partner at Storm Ventures, will join Clear Skye’s board."
Palo Alto, California-based compliance-as-a-service platform provider Trustero has emerged from stealth with $8 million in a seed funding round led by Zetta Venture Partners, with participation from Engineering Capital and Vertex Ventures, SecurityWeek reports.
Executive moves.
Cohesity has hired Brian Higgins as head of channels for the Asia-Pacific and Japan region. Higgins previously served at VMware as Senior Director for the Asia-Pacific and Japan Commercial Business.
Axonius has appointed KY Wong as Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific, Channel Asia reports.
Black Kite has appointed former Gartner analyst Jeffrey Wheatman as Senior Vice President Cyber Risk Evangelist.
Companies in the news.
Controversial German spyware vendor FinFisher filed for insolvency last month, Bloomberg reports. The company was being investigated by the German government over allegations that it illegally sold its spyware to Turkey. A spokesperson for the German insolvency administrator told Bloomberg, "Employees are no longer employed in the companies. The business premises were abandoned in the course of the opening of insolvency proceedings and the location of the companies in Munich was dissolved, as there was no perspective of continuing business operations."