At a glance.
- Swiss Post to acquire Open Systems.
- Second Front Systems raises $70 million.
- Google files EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft.
Mergers and acquisitions.
Swiss Post, the national postal service of Switzerland, intends to acquire Zurich-headquartered network security company Open Systems. Swiss Post stated, "Open Systems’ digital network and security solutions will enable Swiss Post to strengthen its role as a relevant provider of digital communication solutions. It will also safeguard the handling of data for private companies and public authorities, enhancing its competencies and expertise to help boost Switzerland as a digitally networked country."
Investments and exits.
Delaware-based secure software delivery company Second Front Systems has raised $70 million in a Series C round led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Battery Ventures and existing investors NEA, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Artis Ventures. The company's CEO Tyler Sweatt stated, "With new additions to the product suite, new global partners, and new supported deployment patterns, the future is bright. The Series C funding adds fuel to the fire, enabling us to scale quicker, faster, and stronger."
San Francisco-headquartered security validation company Picus Security has raised $45 million in a growth investment round led by Riverwood Capital, with participation from existing investor Earlybird Digital East Fund. The company says the new funding "will advance Picus’ continued product innovation and expand customer success, sales, and marketing."
Israeli autonomous security operations company Intezer has secured $33 million in a Series C round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from all existing investors, including Intel Capital, OpenView, Magma, and Alon Cohen. The company says, "With these funds, Intezer will expand its go-to-market and product teams to strengthen its position as a leader in the emerging AI SOC market category."
US-based email security firm EasyDMARC has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Radian Capital. The company stated, "With this funding round, EasyDMARC plans to fuel global expansion by investing in its team and technology. The company will expand its teams across all business functions and enhance existing product offerings to deliver a seamless experience for its enterprise clients worldwide, helping them meet the growing demands of regulatory compliance. Additionally, the company will strengthen its channel partner ecosystem across Europe, the UK, the US, and APAC, providing its MSP partners with additional resources and streamlined processes to better serve their end-customers."
Virginia-based software supply chain security company RunSafe Security has raised $12 million in a Series B round led by Critical Ventures and SineWave Venture Partners, with participation from BMW i Ventures, Working Lab Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, HyperLink Ventures, Iron Gate Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners, and NextGen Venture Partners. The company says the funding "will accelerate new product development and market expansion to EMEA and APAC."
San Francisco-based client-side web security company c/side has secured $6 million in a seed funding round led by Uncork Capital, with participation from Mantis VC, Scribble Ventures, Roar Ventures, and PrimeSet. The company stated, "The seed funding will enable c/side to accelerate the development of its flagship product, the powerful proxy solution for securing third-party web scripts. The company will also deepen its vulnerability detection engine’s capabilities and grow its team to support customer service, sales, partnership, and marketing functions."
US-based container security startup Edera has raised $5 million in a seed round led by 645 Ventures and Eniac Ventures, with participation from FPV Ventures, Generationship, Precursor Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, and angel investors.
Estonian WordPress security firm Patchstack has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Karma Ventures, with participation from G+D Ventures and Emilia Capital, Technews 180 reports.
New York-based identity management startup Hydden has secured $4.4 million is a seed round led by Access Venture Partners, with participation from Lockstep and Service Provider Capital.
Executive moves.
Keeper Security has appointed James Edwards as Senior Director of Engineering.
Pierson Ferdinand has added Scott Lupiani as a partner in its Cyber, Privacy & Data Security practice group.
Horizon3.ai has appointed Keith Poyser as Vice President for EMEA. The company also added Nicholas Warner as an independent board director.
Fortunes of commerce.
Google Cloud today filed a complaint with the European Commission over alleged anti-competitive licensing practices by Microsoft. Google stated, "For years, in the productivity software space, Microsoft has locked customers into Teams, even when they preferred other providers. Now, the company is running the same playbook to push companies to Azure, its cloud platform. Microsoft’s licensing terms restrict European customers from moving their current Microsoft workloads to competitors’ clouds – despite there being no technical barriers to doing so – or impose what Microsoft admits is a striking 400% price markup."
A Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC that they expect the European Commission to dismiss the complaint, stating, "Microsoft settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google hoped they would keep litigating. Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission."