At a glance.
- Google makes progress in acquisition of Mandiant.
- Forescout acquires Cysiv.
- Lightspeed Venture Partners raises $7.1 billion in funding.
Mergers and acquisitions.
A major step forward has been made in Google’s acquisition of Mandiant. CRN Australia reports that in a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mandiant has reported that the US Department of Justice has ended its antitrust inquiry, and is allowing the deal to proceed. Mandiant says in its filing that they anticipate the merger to be closed in late 2022.
Automated cybersecurity company Forescout Technologies has announced that it has completed its acquisition of cybersecurity innovator Cysiv. This acquisition enhances Forescout’s threat detection and response ability. CEO of Forescout, Wael Mohamed, said, “Security companies are guilty of adding one more agent, one more tool, when in reality, our customers don’t want more, they want less. Less agents, less noise, less applications to manage. Forescout is in the unique position of helping our customers achieve this with closed-loop threat protection on unmanaged and managed assets. We now take our unparalleled, agentless visibility and automated cybersecurity and combine this with Cysiv’s threat analytics and detection capabilities to assist our customers to respond more quickly.”
Maryland-based managed security platform provider Huntress has acquired story-based security awareness training platform Curricula, based out of Georgia, for $22 million. Kyle Hanslovan, Huntress CEO and co-founder, said, “Delivering education and rallying the community have always been a core part of our mission. Employees today need relatable and effective learning—not just more uninspired content that punishes learners and sets SMBs up for failure. Our team had already seen Curricula’s results internally, so it seemed criminal to not bring it to our partner ecosystem. Together, we're combining Curricula's creativity with Huntress' offensive expertise to address the demand for memorable and actionable threat training.”
Charlotte, North Carolina-based data-driven technology advisory services provider Crosslake Technologies has completed its acquisition of cybersecurity advisory firm VantagePoint. Barr Blanton, Crosslake’s CEO, said, “Cybersecurity is an imperative for investors, boards and management teams as they navigate complex, fast-moving environments with growing risk to middle-market businesses in terms of both incident frequency and impact. Our team has long admired VantagePoint, which shares our client-focused, expert-driven approach.”
Advance Intelligence Group, headquartered in Singapore, has acquired fintech company Jewel Paymentech. The companies report that the acquisition will expand Advance Intelligence Group’s capabilities in the Web3.0, fraud and risk management space. “We’ve spent a lot of time with Jewel’s founding team and we’re very excited to add their capabilities, talents and leadership team to our group,” said Umair Javed, senior vice president for M&A and corporate development at Advance Intelligence Group. “Their established track record in merchant due diligence, transaction and fraud monitoring complements our own capabilities and offers our existing clients and partners in our ecosystem an even fuller suite of products and services.”
Global solution provider ePlus Technology announced its acquisition of Texas-based cybersecurity, cloud security, and consulting services provider Future Com. ePlus CEO and President Mark Marron says that the acquisition expands the company’s resources and capabilities and grows its Texas footprint. “We have a half-billion dollars in security revenue, including services and solutions. What they do bring is additional services people who can help us. … And they have the ability to bring our other services to their customers in security, managed services, and staffing capabilities. We feel pretty good about it,” Marron told CRN.
Brand suitability company Zefr, based in Los Angeles, has announced its acquisition of Israeli AI firm Adverif.ai. "Defunding misinformation is critical for brands, and it requires investment in technology solutions to ensure accuracy and scalability. After diligencing the industry for a year, it became clear that Adverif.ai's AI and tech-led approach was uniquely equipped to bring a scalable, unbiased and data-driven lens to the topic and seamlessly integrate with our existing platform, Cognition AI,” said Chris Murphy, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development at Zefr.
Investments and exits.
Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $7.1 billion across three US funds and an India fund for early and growth-stage entrepreneurs around the world. The firm is also launching a joint partnership with Sam Harrison, co-founder of Blockchain Ventures.
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), based out of Falls Church, Virginia, has been awarded a $908 million contract to support IT and network systems used by the US Air Forces in Europe. GDIT said in a press release, “Individual task orders will encompass modernizing and supporting existing infrastructure, networks, systems, operations and maintenance, cybersecurity, as well as managing new requirements and emerging technology.”
Halborn, a blockchain cybersecurity firm based out of Miami, has raised $90 million in growth equity financing, led by Summit Partners, with contributions from Castle Island, Digital Currency Group, Brevan Howard, Third Prime, Sky Vision Capital, and Fenwick. "With security vulnerabilities dominating the crypto news headlines, and over $1.5 billion in financial losses from DeFi hacks in 2022 to date, the demand for Web3 security is only growing. Funding from this Series A will be used to expand our global team of offensive security engineers and build our Halborn Labs division, accelerating our robust pipeline of SaaS security products," said Halborn co-founder and CISO Steven Walbroehl.
Phoenix, Arizona-based offensive security solution firm Bishop Fox has raised $75 million in Series B funding from Carrick Capital Partners. This round brings the firm’s total funding to $100 million. Bishop Fox reports that the funding will be used to grow the team of offensive security experts and fuel expansion of its Cosmos platform.
The United States Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $58.8 million contract for the next phase of a critical cyber, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence platform for soldiers. FedScoop reports that the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team (TLS-BCT) is a “Stryker-mounted system that will provide indications and warning, force protection and situational awareness, as well as offensive capabilities to deny, degrade and disrupt adversary systems.”
Blockchain security startup BlockSec, based out of China, has raised $8 million in seed funding, led by Vitalbridge Capital and Matrix Partners, with contributions from CoinSummer, Mirana Ventures, and YM Capital. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its research and production teams and to expand its monitoring and attack prevention capabilities to support more decentralized applications.
Texas-based cybersecurity startup HiddenLayer has emerged from stealth with $6 million in funding, backed by Ten Eleven Ventures. The startup reports that it is developing a machine learning detection and response platform, which is designed to protect AI machine learning models that protect companies from attackers.
British cybersecurity startup Push Security has raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Decibel, with additional investments from Duo co-founder Jon Oberheide and Thinkst CEO Haroon Meer. Adam Bateman, Push co-founder and CEO, said that the startup is working on a lightweight, scalable way to let employees use SaaS responsibly, guiding them to solve security issues on their own and take some of the work off of security teams.
Executive moves.
Contrast Security has appointed Ben Goodman as the company's Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Alliances.
Zimperium has appointed Joseph Dunford to its board of directors. Dunford is the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Praetorian has appointed Alexander Pagoulatos as the company’s Vice President of Product.
Dataminr has appointed Dave DeWalt as Chair of its New Corporate Market Advisory Board.
Red Canary has announced the appointment of John Ritchie as its Chief Financial Officer.
DIGISTOR has hired Ben Warner as Director of Applications Engineering.
TikTok Global Chief Security Officer Roland Cloutier will be stepping down from his position in September. He will stay on as a strategic adviser focused on the business impact of security programs.
Cerby has hired Matthew Chiodi as the company’s Chief Trust Officer, and Kurt Greening as Head of Sales.
Secureframe has expanded their team, adding Greg Perotto as Chief Marketing Officer, Kyle McLaughlin as General Counsel, and Mat Rider as VP of Growth Marketing.
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has appointed Robert Morse as a senior solutions architect for the company.
Cybereason has appointed Chantél Hamman as channel director for Sub-Saharan Africa.