At a glance.
- Salesforce will acquire Own Company for $1.9 billion.
- Zafran Security raises $40 million.
Mergers and acquisitions.
Salesforce has signed an agreement to acquire New Jersey-based data security and management firm Own Company for approximately $1.9 billion in cash. The company stated, "Own’s capabilities will complement Salesforce’s existing offerings, such as Salesforce Backup, Shield, and Data Mask. This will enable Salesforce to offer a more comprehensive data protection and loss prevention set of products, further reinforcing its commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions."
Finnish cybersecurity company WithSecure is selling its open source data collection product and business to defense and security firm Patria. Antti Koskela, CEO and president of WithSecure, stated, "This is a win-win-win situation where we sharpen our focus on the Elements portfolio. Further, the data collection product and business can further develop within a well-resourced company, and Patria strengthens its cyber business area by acquiring a product and business related to open source data collection."
Investments and exits.
Israeli threat exposure management platform provider Zafran Security has raised $40 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from 01 Advisors and existing investor Cyberstarts, CTech reports. The company said on LinkedIn, "The additional funds will be rocket fuel to continue to build with our customers towards our vision of creating the world’s first Threat Exposure Management Platform that integrates with your security tools to reveal, remediate, and mitigate the risk of exposures across your entire infrastructure."
Darkhive, a San Antonio-based startup providing a secure software delivery system for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems, has raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Ten Eleven Ventures. Darkhive says the funding "will help the company develop its product portfolio, expand its resources to support secured DoD contracts, and pursue new business opportunities."
Israeli risk management and compliance platform provider Datricks has secured $15 million in a Series A round led by Team8, with participation from SAP SE and existing investor Jerusalem Venture Partners, VentureBeat reports.
Sunnyvale, California-based generative AI security company Acuvity has emerged from stealth with $9 million in funding led by Foundation Capital, with participation from angel investors. The company says it "will use the funding to accelerate the development of its products to protect the rapid expansion of AI adoption in the enterprise."
AI chatbot security startup SplxAI has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Inovo.vc, with participation from South Central Ventures and Runtime Ventures. The company says the funding "will help us accelerate our product development, expand our team, and scale our operations."
Executive moves.
Darktrace's CEO Poppy Gustafsson has stepped down and has been succeeded by Jill Popelka, the company's Chief Operating Officer. Gustafsson stated, "With the acquisition of Darktrace by Thoma Bravo nearing its completion and with us having identified an excellent successor in Jill, now is the right time to hand over the reins so Jill can lead Darktrace through its transition into private ownership and beyond. I am profoundly grateful to have had the privilege of leading such an exceptional team and I look forward to remaining engaged in this exciting next chapter of the business as a non-executive director after the transaction completes."
Aviatrix has appointed John Qian as CISO.
AttackIQ has named Paul Reid as Vice President of Adversary Research and Rob Stitch as Vice President of Product.
Cynomi has appointed Tim Coach as Chief Evangelist of Community and Channels.
Fortunes of commerce.
Kaspersky is transferring about one million of its US-based customers to antivirus provider UltraAV before shuttering its US operations at the end of September, SecurityWeek reports. The US Commerce Department has banned Kaspersky from selling its products in the US due to alleged connections to the Russian government. UltraAV is owned by Boston-based cybersecurity company Pango Group.