The partnership between Acronis and EQT, the global investment organization, builds upon a shared growth vision, commitment to accelerating the expansion of its platform, and continued focus on customer service
Acronis (the “Company”) and EQT are pleased to announce that the EQT X fund (“EQT”) will acquire a majority stake in the Company. The founders, management, and existing investors – including funds and accounts managed by CVC, Springcoast and BlackRock Private Equity Partners – will remain as significant minority shareholders. Acronis is valued in the transaction above the last growth funding round which was completed in 2022.
Founded in 2003, Acronis is a leading IT solutions vendor for Managed Service Providers, offering a natively integrated, highly efficient cybersecurity and data protection platform. In a market where data and workloads are growing and businesses increasingly recognize the importance of cybersecurity, Acronis enables customers to outsource IT capabilities while ensuring high standards of data security, integrity and reliability. Through its Managed Service Providers channel, Acronis is well positioned to continue scaling its network rapidly. With 15 offices around the globe and more than 1,700 employees, Acronis’ network spans over 150 countries enabling over 20,000 Service Providers to protect over 750,000 businesses.
Johannes Reichel, Partner and Co-Head of Technology within EQT’s Private Equity advisory team, said: “Acronis is a strongly positioned cybersecurity and data protection software platform with a clear value proposition to Managed Service Providers. EQT has followed the company’s journey for many years and continues to be impressed by its performance and innovative strength. We are very excited to partner with Acronis, the management team and existing investors on its next phase of growth.”
Ezequiel Steiner, CEO of Acronis, stated: “We are thrilled to have EQT as a major shareholder to support our strategic expansion and share our vision for growth. We would like to thank our existing investors for their support to date and are pleased that many will remain invested as we move forward. But most of all, I’d like to thank the Acronis team for their work in getting us to this stage.”
Commenting on Acronis’ product suite, Phil Goodwin, research vice president of IDC, said: “Data protection is foundational to cybersecurity, and the two are increasingly tightly integrated. Acronis’ architecture of integrated data protection, cybersecurity, and remote management in a single, customizable platform enables MSPs and corporate IT departments to establish robust cyber preparedness for their business with simplicity and reliability.”
The completion of this transaction is pending customary regulatory approvals and is anticipated to take place in Q1-Q2 2025. EQT was advised by Milbank (Legal) and Bär & Karrer (Legal).
With this transaction, EQT X is expected to be 40 – 45 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication).
About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 246 billion in total assets under management (EUR 133 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.
About Acronis
Acronis is a global cyber protection company that provides natively integrated cybersecurity, data protection, and endpoint management for managed service providers (MSPs), small and medium businesses (SMBs), and enterprise IT departments. Acronis solutions are highly efficient and designed to identify, prevent, detect, respond, remediate, and recover from modern cyberthreats with minimal downtime, ensuring data integrity and business continuity. Acronis offers the most comprehensive security solution on the market for MSPs with its unique ability to meet the needs of diverse and distributed IT environments.
A Swiss company founded in Singapore in 2003, Acronis has 15 offices worldwide and employees in 50+ countries. Acronis Cyber Protect is available in 26 languages in 150 countries and is used by over 20,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses. Learn more at www.acronis.com.
PALO ALTO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 24, 2024 / Dazz, a leader in unified security remediation, announced today that it has secured $50 million in a funding round co-led by Greylock, with participation from Cyberstarts, Insight Partners and Index Ventures, who doubled down on their initial investments to accelerate its momentum in redefining risk prioritization and remediation using AI technologies. The latest financing brings the company’s total funding to $110 million and will fuel its mission to help security and engineering teams reduce exposure efficiently.
Since its launch in late 2021, Dazz has experienced rapid customer growth with Fortune 500 and hyper-growth companies such as BHG Financial, Healthfirst, TaxSlayer, iCapital, and Abnormal Security across financial services, healthcare, pharmaceutical, technology, retail, and manufacturing industries. To date, customers have used the Dazz Unified Remediation Platform to automatically find and manage 1.2 billion vulnerabilities and resolve close to 500 million issues at root causes, saving significant security and engineering time, plus dramatically reducing the chance of security incidents. From FY2023 to FY2024, Dazz achieved a 400 percent increase in ARR, while tripling its salesforce and expanding its footprint across all functions in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
“In a world where security breaches occur on average every 11 seconds, the constant rise in AI-powered threats presents a prominent danger of more efficient and scalable attacks,” said Merav Bahat, Dazz Co-Founder and CEO. “At Dazz, we are experiencing remarkable business momentum, thanks to a critical market gap that Dazz uniquely addresses. The last year proved that our innovation and execution leads to unprecedented growth, which this new round of funding will accelerate. We are honored and excited to deepen our collaboration with the world’s top cyber investors, with their unwavering trust and support fueling our mission to simplify cloud remediation and help our customers harness the power of AI to prevent attacks.”
Dazz transforms legacy vulnerability management and remediation processes through patented AI, automation, and root-cause analysis technologies that enable security and engineering teams to identify, prioritize, and fix vulnerabilities in hours instead of weeks. The company’s Unified Remediation Platform provides CISOs with holistic visibility across all detection tools and environments, including code, clouds, applications, and infrastructure, and provides significant time savings for customers in researching security issues and reducing the Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR).
“As founding investors in Dazz, we are excited to significantly increase our investment and co-lead the latest financing,” said Asheem Chandna, Partner at Greylock Partners. “Cybersecurity remediation is a growing high priority area. Merav and her accomplished team at Dazz have strong momentum underway as the leader in this new important category.”
“The Dazz team has built a robust solution to one of the oldest, most critical pain points for security teams – sorting through an ocean of alerts and remediating the most critical weaknesses in production, staging, and code levels,” said Gili Raanan, founder of Cyberstarts. “We have been partners to Dazz since day zero and continue to work closely with Merav, Tomer, and Yuval to build an iconic cyber company.”
“Dazz has become a cornerstone of our DevSecOps practice, enabling our security and developer teams to work better together on reducing risk,” said Gary Owen, Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Risk Officer at iCapital. “It allows us to automate workflows and immediately focus on prioritizing and fixing the issues that matter the most to our business.”
About Dazz
Dazz enables security and development teams to remediate risks and reduce exposure across code, clouds, applications, and infrastructure. Our Unified Remediation Platform rapidly uncovers blind spots, prioritizes issues, and streamlines fixes in a developer-friendly workflow, so risk windows shrink from weeks to hours. Dazz is a critical foundation for Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), DevSecOps, and Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) strategies. Visit us at dazz.io and follow us on LinkedIn at dazz-io and on Twitter at @dazz_io.
Zug / Munich / Milan, June 20, 2024 – Funds advised by Bregal Unternehmerkapital (“BU”) execute a binding agreement aimed at acquiring a majority stake in Relatech S.p.A. (“Relatech” or “Company”), a leading B2B partner for digital transformation whose shares are listed on the Euronext Milan Growth. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing of the acquisition, a mandatory tender offer on the remaining shares of Relatech will be launched aimed at the delisting of the Company from the Euronext Growth Milan. The management will reinvest in the Company.
Based in Italy, Relatech is a leading provider of digital enabler solutions operating in the fast-growing Digital Transformation, Industrial Automation and Cybersecurity markets. The Company supports customers in achieving their goals and redesigning their business models by providing innovative digital services and solutions leveraging key technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, IoT, Cybersecurity, and Big Data. Relatech employs ~700 employees and serves a long list of Italian and International blue-chip customers in diversified end markets.
Relatech is the second platform investment of the new Bregal Unternehmerkapital IV fund, which closed in May 2024 at a record amount of €2.65 billion. In terms of fund volume and the number of partnerships with “hidden champions”, BU is one of the largest mid-cap investors in the DACH region and has also been active in Italy since 2021. BU has in-depth experience in working with growth-oriented business services and software companies. Together with Relatech, the aim is now to drive organic and inorganic growth. The focus will include new cross-selling initiatives, the increased expansion of cyber security offerings in the wake of new regulatory requirements for the industry as well as possible strategic acquisitions and process optimizations.
“Since our founding in 2001, Relatech has undergone a remarkable journey, and we are thrilled to announce the partnership with BU as a stepping stone in the Company’s continued success. With the support of BU, we look forward to accelerating growth organically and via acquisitions, extending our international reach and strengthening our position as customers’ partner of choice for digital innovation, thereby leading the Digital Renaissance. We look forward to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead and are confident that this new phase will bring unparalleled benefits to all our stakeholders”, said Pasquale Lambardi, Founder, Shareholder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Relatech.
Valentina Pippolo, Partner and Country Head of BU Italy, added, “We are excited to partner with Pasquale Lambardi and Relatech’s management team to support its development through both organic and inorganic initiatives. The Company is a champion in digital innovation, as demonstrated by its growth over the past years. We intend to accelerate Relatech’s growth, both in Italy and abroad, strengthening its proposition to help customers become more competitive through digital solutions that boost efficiencies within their organizations.”
BU is assisted by Mediobanca, as financial advisor, Chiomenti, as legal advisor, A&M, as accounting advisor, Essentia, as debt advisor, Legance, as structuring advisor Deloitte, as tax advisor and Code & Co. as technology advisor.
About Bregal Unternehmerkapital
Bregal Unternehmerkapital (“BU”) is a leading investment firm with offices in Zug, Munich, and Milan. With €7.0bn in capital raised to date, BU is the largest mid-cap investor headquartered in the DACH region. The funds advised by BU invest in mid-sized companies based in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. With the mission to be the partner of choice for entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses, BU seeks to partner with market leaders and “hidden champions” with strong management teams and outbreak potential. Since its founding in 2015, the funds advised by BU have invested in over 100 companies with more than 27,000 employees. Thereby, more than 7,700 jobs have been created. BU supports entrepreneurs and families as a strategic partner to develop, internationalize, and digitize their businesses, while helping them generate sustainable value on a responsible basis with the next generation in mind.For more information, please visit www.bregal.ch/ or follow us on LinkedIn.
A product and GTM strategy discussion with Kumar Saurabh and Foundation Capital Partner Sid Trivedi in Palo Alto.
Last week AirMDR emerged from stealth to announce its SMB-focused autonomous Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform and the $5M seed round led by Foundation Capital. We were the first investor in AirMDR and incubated the company in summer 2023. I’ve personally been on the board of directors since inception and worked closely with the team from day zero.
Advances in automation have given AirMDR a chance to level the playing field in cybersecurity, giving small and medium enterprises the same detection and response capabilities as Fortune 2000s. Here’s the story of how the journey began, why we invested, and what’s ahead.
Kumar with Nick (CISO of Scrut Automation and an early customer) at Foundation Capital’s San Francisco office in May 2024.
A massive and unprotected attack vector
SMB executives have long believed that hackers pose a threat only to the largest companies—those with big brands to protect and plenty of capital to pay ransom demands. But this isn’t entirely true. Hackers have recognized that SMBs typically have limited cybersecurity tooling or knowledge and so are much easier targets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses were attacked at twice the rate of larger organizations.
SMBs have started to recognize that they are the weakest link, and they want to fix this problem. The most recent US Chamber of Commerce Survey from Q1 2024 found that cybersecurity threats are now the biggest concern for SMBs, ahead of supply chain breakdowns, theft, weather, or even another pandemic. Despite this strong demand, there is a significant talent shortage in cybersecurity (3.5M unfilled positions globally), and according to data from the World Economic Forum and Accenture, over half of SMBs don’t have the skills to respond to and recover from cyberattacks.
On the other hand, large companies typically have an internal 24/7 security operations center (SOC) that monitors alerts from across their IT and security tooling to detect threats and respond to them in real time. For a mid-size business of ~1-2K employees to maintain this level of capability you need to build a team of at least a dozen security analysts, detection engineers, and automation engineers. You also need to pay for the necessary software to log alerts, build playbooks, and run orchestration. Even for mid-market enterprises, this can end up costing $1-$3M a year.
This is where managed detection and response (MDR) providers come in. These providers become a mid-market customer’s outsourced security team and augment the in-house SOC for larger enterprises. MDR providers combine technology and human expertise to perform remote threat hunting, monitoring, and response. According to data from Emergen Research, the global MDR market was $4.9B in 2021 and is estimated to grow to $21.9B by 2030. It’s one of the fastest-growing segments in cybersecurity, but it’s mostly powered by services—typically located offshore in lower-wage economies.
Reinventing MDR with a virtual AI analyst
The rise of large language model innovation, supercharged by the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, started to get me thinking about the opportunity ahead for new cybersecurity innovation. Two areas where I believed we would see significant innovation using generative AI are in a reinvention of detection and response tooling and the opportunity to target SMB cybersecurity. When Microsoft launched Security for Copilot in March 2023, I shared some of my thoughts on startup opportunities publicly on LinkedIn.
Kumar Saurabh saw this post and sent me a note:“This is a super interesting area for me. I do not have a concrete enough plan yet to start executing – but I am seriously exploring that area. My gut tells me that a new product should exist in that space.”
Kumar is no stranger to the detection and response category. He was one of the early employees at ArcSight, which helped to create the SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) market, and where he led the analytics and solutions teams. He eventually rose to become Director of Engineering and stayed right through the company’s IPO. After this journey, in 2010 alongside Christian Beedgen he co-founded Sumo Logic, a cloud-native SIEM platform that provided log management and analytics services. He ran engineering at Sumo and when he left at the end of 2015, half the company reported to him. Even after a successful IPO and thousands of new team members, employees have shared with me that part of the core codebase that runs the search query capabilities at Sumo Logic still comprises the original code written by Kumar. Most recently, Kumar served as CEO and co-founder of LogicHub, a cloud-native SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) platform that was acquired by Devo in September 2022.
After some initial brainstorming, we spent a few months discussing how to leverage LLMs within detection and response. Both of us believed that one of the biggest opportunities created by generative AI was to completely reinvent the MDR through automation and target the underserved small and mid-market customer base. We believed a new startup could embed context learned from security-specific events and build on top of existing LLMs. The goal would be to reduce costs while significantly improving response times using a virtual AI analyst for each piece of the platform experience – from onboarding, detection content deployment, playbooks, threat hunting, and response actions.
Most importantly, instead of exposing a virtual analyst directly to the customer, we would leverage the AI analyst internally so that our own human SOC team could train the chatbot over time. This would ensure that customers didn’t have to deal with issues around the quality of responses and hallucinations. For the customer, the entire experience would feel like just another MDR platform, but under the hood, it would be a completely different engine.
A slide from AirMDR’s original May 2023 seed pitch deck, which walked through the reinvention of the MDR platform by augmenting human security analysts with AI.
Once the idea had crystallized into a product vision, we incorporated the company and signed a term sheet to lead the seed round in June 2023. Tae Hea Nahm of Storm Ventures, who was an early investor in Kumar’s last company LogicHub, also joined us as we began this journey.
Assembling the A-team
To go after a big vision in a competitive market, you need a world-class team. Kumar’s first partner in this journey was Anthony Morris who was an early employee at LogicHub and ran their MDR service. With experience working at top-tier SOC teams at Bank of America and Experian, Anthony knows what a good SOC looks like and wants to bring that same experience to SMBs. In fall 2023, Sekhar Sarukkai, the technical co-founder of Skyhigh Networks introduced me to his CPO, Anand Ramanathan. After long careers at Skyhigh, McAfee, Proofpoint, and Cisco, Anand was thinking about his next role and really wanted to go early. We were looking for a product leader and quickly realized that Anand brought the right mix of deep market insight, an execution-focused attitude, and the humbleness to realize what he didn’t know.
One of my former portfolio companies, Attivo Networks, which sold to SentinelOne for $617M in March 2022, also became a key ground for us to recruit talent. Carolyn Crandall, Attivo’s CMO became available in October 2023, and we knew she would be an excellent fit given her experience running marketing orgs at Cisco, Juniper, and Riverbed. Carolyn can make products stand out in the crowd and run focused demand-generation campaigns. And just as we thought things couldn’t get any better, in December 2023, Srikant Vissamsetti, the technical visionary behind Attivo, called me to say that he was thinking about what to do next. Srikant built Attivo’s platform to scale to over 300 customers across 6 continents and ran an engineering team of over 100 employees. This was a hire we couldn’t miss, and I immediately called Kumar. We got to work convincing Srikant to join us as CTO and by the start of the New Year he was all in.
With Kumar, Anthony, Anand, Carolyn, Srikant, and 20 other engineers, we have a dream team that brings enterprise-grade expertise to the SMB market.
With Srikant, Anand, Kumar, and Carolyn at Foundation Capital’s Palo Alto office in June 2024.
Pulling back the curtains
After a year of building, we’re finally ready to share the AirMDR platform publicly. We want to deliver on the promise of quality and speed— something that most human-oriented MDRs have failed to do—while also opening the market to a customer base that previously couldn’t afford a cybersecurity team. Our 24/7 human SOC leverages our virtual analyst (named Darryl) to investigate, triage, respond to, and contain threats. With AirMDR’s automation capabilities, we’ve shown that Darryl can perform tasks in under 5 minutes which would normally take human analysts over an hour to do. AirMDR’s platform supports each company’s business tech stack of choice with over 200 vendor integrations out of the box covering 90% of the integrations a typical customer might require.
We’ve already connected the team with several early customers and advisors like Nick Muy, Chris Castaldo, Assaf Keren, Kane Lightowler, and Mahendra Ramsinghani. This is also the only cybersecurity investment where we fit the customer profile, and I’m proud to say that Foundation Capital is also a paid customer of AirMDR.
We’ve had a long history of investing in novel approaches within detection and response security. From Phantom Cyber (which helped create the SOAR market) to Respond Software (which worked to automate the security analyst role before LLMs) to Anvilogic (which provides enterprises with a multi-platform SIEM architecture) to Permiso (which helps companies manage real-time cloud threats). We believe that AirMDR unpacks another new opportunity and focuses on a customer base we haven’t yet touched—the SMB market. We’re excited for AirMDR to finally bridge the cyber inequity gap. Congratulations, Kumar and the entire AirMDR team.
AirMDR is headquartered in Menlo Park, Ca. If you’d like to try their MDR platform, you can do so risk-free and for a limited-time 40% discount using an exclusive link here.
Published on 6.13.24
Written by Foundation Capital
Wendel (Euronext: MF.FP), through its Wendel Growth investment arm, announced today the acquisition of a
minority stake in YesWeHack through an equity investment of €14.5 million. Wendel invests alongside Adelie,
Seventure Partners and historical investors Eiffel Investment Group, Open CNP2 and Caisse des Dépôts et
Consignations.
YesWeHack is a cybersecurity company that was founded in 2015. The company has developed a platform to
manage Bug Bounties, a cybersecurity technique consisting in incentivizing a community of ethical hackers to
detect and report vulnerabilities in exchange for bounties. YesWeHack connects organisations to tens of
thousands of ethical hackers. The goal is uncovering and patching vulnerabilities in websites, mobile apps,
connected devices and digital infrastructure. YesWeHack has a strong international footprint with dominant
positions in France and Singapore and clients coming from over 50 countries.
Hundreds of organisations worldwide – private, public and governmental – already benefit from YesWeHack’s
in-house triage3, personalised support, customisable model and a results-based billing model for the customer.
Built and run by ethical hackers, YesWeHack has in-depth knowledge of what ethical hackers and
organisations need from a Bug Bounty platform to cost-effectively secure digital assets, reputations and
customer data.
Antoine Izsak, Head of Growth Equity, said:
« Bug bounty is now recognised as a must by some of the companies most exposed to the cyber threat. We
are delighted to be working with the European leader YesWeHack, which stands out for its quality of service,
compliance with regulations and the relevance of its technological roadmap for customers who are increasingly
overwhelmed by the growing volume of vulnerabilities.»
Guillaume Vassault-Houlière, YesWeHack CEO, stated:
« This new round of funding is a vote of confidence in our commitment to excellence and ambitious vision.
Thanks to this investment, YesWeHack commits to delivering even higher levels of customer satisfaction and
accelerating development of innovative solutions in one of the most dynamic market segments in
cybersecurity. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Wendel for their support. Their considerable
experience and long-term vision will be decisive assets for YesWeHack in this new phase of its development,
which will make it a global player in cybersecurity.”
1 where ethical hackers can report security exploits
2
the Corporate Venture Capital fund of CNP Assurances
3
the triage team main role is to check the vulnerabilities found before forwarding them to the customers
About Wendel
Wendel is one of Europe’s leading listed investment firms. The Group invests in Europe and North America in companies which are leaders in their field, such as ACAMS, Bureau
Veritas, Crisis Prevention Institute, IHS Towers, Scalian, Stahl and Tarkett. Wendel often plays an active role as a controlling or significant shareholder in its portfolio companies.
Wendel seeks to implement long-term development strategies, which involve boosting growth and margins of companies so as to enhance their leading market positions. With
Wendel Growth, Wendel also invests via funds or directly in innovative, high-growth companies. In 2023, Wendel initiated a strategic shift into third-party asset management of
private assets, alongside its historical principal investment activities.
Wendel is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris.
Standard & Poor’s ratings: Long-term: BBB, stable outlook – Short-term: A-2 since January 25, 2019
Wendel is the Founding Sponsor of Centre Pompidou-Metz. In recognition of its long-term patronage of the arts, Wendel received the distinction of “Grand Mécène de la Culture”
in 2012.
For more information: wendelgroup.com
Follow us on LinkedIn @Wendel
TAMPA BAY, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Egress, a leader in adaptive and integrated cloud email security. Egress’ Intelligent Email Security suite provides a set of scaled, AI-enabled security tools with adaptive learning capabilities to help prevent, protect and defend organizations against sophisticated email cybersecurity threats. Further terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“One of the biggest challenges organizations face is accurately identifying who the next source of compromise is – and why. By combining intelligence and analytics from integrated applications, companies can gain valuable insights across their entire cyber ecosystem, allowing them to focus on the risks that matter most.”
Organizations globally struggle to contain behavioral-based data breaches, with 74 percent of incidents involving the human element according to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report. By acquiring Egress, KnowBe4 plans to deliver a single platform that aggregates threat intelligence dynamically, offering AI-based email security and training that is automatically tailored relative to risk.
“The future of security is personalized AI-driven controls and real-time coaching. By providing a single platform from KnowBe4 and Egress, our customers will benefit from differentiated aggregate threat detection to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats and foster a strong security culture,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. “As integration partners for over a year with strong philosophical and cultural alignment, this acquisition is a natural progression for both companies to take human risk management and cloud email security to the next level.”
“KnowBe4 and Egress have a shared vision of delivering tailored and relevant security to each employee,” said Tony Pepper, CEO, Egress. “One of the biggest challenges organizations face is accurately identifying who the next source of compromise is – and why. By combining intelligence and analytics from integrated applications, companies can gain valuable insights across their entire cyber ecosystem, allowing them to focus on the risks that matter most.”
The announcement comes on the heels of significant achievements for both companies thus far in 2024. KnowBe4 recently announced its AI-native platform, Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents (AIDA), which incorporates advanced AI agents to power efficacy and speed. Recent notable awards include being recognized as a Top Software Winner by G2 and a winner of Energage’s Top Workplaces USA for 2024. Meanwhile, Egress launched its AI-powered Automated Abuse Mailbox in early April and received several award recognitions, including Security Innovation of the Year (Computing Security Excellence Awards), Best Email Security Solution, Best Data Leak Prevention Solution (SC Awards Europe) and Best Place to Work in the UK (Great Places to Work 2024).
The transaction is expected to close in the coming months subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Egress is backed by FTV Capital and AlbionVC. Citi served as exclusive financial advisor to Egress and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP served as legal counsel to Egress.
KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 65,000 organizations around the globe. Founded by IT and data security specialist Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. The late Kevin Mitnick, who was an internationally recognized cybersecurity specialist and KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer, helped design the KnowBe4 training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Organizations rely on KnowBe4 to mobilize their end users as their last line of defense and trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.
About Egress
As advanced persistent threats continue to evolve, we recognize that people are the biggest risk to organizations’ security and are most vulnerable when using email.
Egress is the only cloud email security platform to continuously assess human risk and dynamically adapt policy controls, preparing customers to defend against advanced phishing attacks and outbound data breaches before they happen. Leveraging contextual machine learning and neural networks, with seamless integration using cloud-native API architecture, Egress provides enhanced email protection, deep visibility into human risk, and instant time to value.
Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR), today announced new collaborations with Google Cloud to simplify customer access to security protections in the cloud. In addition to achieving Google Cloud Partner Advantage Build authorizations for both Google Cloud and Google Workspace, Trellix has joined Google Cloud Ready – Distributed Cloud initiative. Through both, Google Cloud customers are equipped with open, interoperable security solutions from Trellix.
Trellix and Google Distributed Cloud
Google Distributed Cloud’s air-gapped option meets rigorous regulatory, durability, and availability standards for customers requiring air-gapped systems with no connectivity to Google Cloud or the public internet. Trellix is working towards making Trellix Endpoint Security available to Google Cloud customers seeking on-premises protections through the new Google Cloud Ready – Distributed Cloud initiative.
“Joining the Google Distributed Cloud initiative represents a pivotal milestone in safeguarding heavily regulated sectors and securing our customers where they operate,” said John Morgan, XDR General Manager at Trellix. “For customers seeking the security benefits of on-premises infrastructure while leveraging Google Cloud’s state-of-the-art cloud technology, Trellix stands ready to ensure comprehensive protection.”
HERNDON, Va. — GuidePoint Security, a cybersecurity solutions leader enabling organizations to make smarter decisions and minimize risk, today announced the closing of a funding round led by Audax Private Equity, a leading alternative investment manager and capital partner to middle market companies. GuidePoint will leverage the investment to further accelerate growth across the United States and expand internationally. Terms of the new investment are not disclosed.
“As the complexity of the cybersecurity landscape becomes more pronounced — with ever evolving threats, thousands of products, and continued resource challenges — demand for our services and solutions has never been higher,” said Michael Volk, Chairman and CEO of GuidePoint Security. “We attribute this consistent and continued rapid growth to our steadfast commitment to partnering with our customers to solve their cybersecurity challenges. We’ve focused on hiring the best and brightest cybersecurity minds across the United States and investing in innovative service offerings to address new and emerging risks. Now with Audax Private Equity, we are set up to help even more customers across the U.S. and expand overseas.”
Founded in 2011, GuidePoint Security has become the trusted cybersecurity advisor to more than 3,800 organizations across the U.S., including one-third of the Fortune 50 and 40% of the Fortune 500, along with more than half of the U.S. government cabinet-level agencies. The company’s unique business model provides local engagement and delivery teams, national scale and purchasing power for industry-leading cybersecurity solutions, breadth and depth of cybersecurity expertise across all disciplines, and engagements that are tailored to each customer’s specific environment and needs.
“GuidePoint has distinguished itself as one of the premier providers of cybersecurity solutions, where local coverage, sophisticated technical skillsets, and industry expertise are crucial to address, mitigate and stay ahead of cyber risks,” noted Iveshu Bhatia, a Managing Director at Audax Private Equity. “Our investment experience in this area should prove beneficial as we work closely with the GuidePoint team to drive growth.”
“GuidePoint Security’s value proposition revolves around the team’s sophisticated technical skillset coupled with deep industry expertise,” added Tim Mack, Partner of Audax Private Equity. “We see a tremendous opportunity to invest in the company’s continued expansion and build upon its track record of growth over the last 12 years.”
Guggenheim Securities, LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor, while DLA Piper provided legal counsel. Kirkland & Ellis served in the same capacity to Audax Private Equity. ABS Capital Partners, a prior investor in GuidePoint Security, participated in the transaction.
ABOUT
About GuidePoint Security:
GuidePoint Security provides trusted cybersecurity expertise, solutions and services that help organizations make better decisions that minimize risk. Our experts act as your trusted advisor to understand your business and challenges, helping you through an evaluation of your cybersecurity posture and ecosystem to expose risks, optimize resources and implement best-fit solutions. GuidePoint’s unmatched expertise has enabled a third of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of the U.S. government cabinet-level agencies to improve their security posture and reduce risk. Learn more at www.guidepointsecurity.com.
About Audax Private Equity:
Based in Boston and San Francisco, Audax Private Equity is a leading middle market investment firm with approximately $18 billion of assets under management, over 210 employees, and 100-plus investment professionals. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has invested in more than 165 platforms and 1,200 add-on acquisitions. Through our disciplined Buy & Build approach, across six core industry verticals, Audax helps portfolio companies execute organic and inorganic growth initiatives that fuel revenue expansion, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. For more information, visit audaxprivateequity.com or follow Audax Private Equity on LinkedIn.
“GuidePoint Security’s value proposition revolves around the team’s sophisticated technical skillset coupled with deep industry expertise. We see a tremendous opportunity to invest in the company’s continued expansion and build upon its track record of growth over the last 12 years.”
Burda Principal Investments proudly continues to back Lithuanian unicorn Nord Security on its exceptional growth path
Burda Principal Investments (BPI) continues to support Nord Security: Just over a year after the first financing round, which made Nord Security the second tech unicorn in Lithuania, the provider of internet privacy and security solutions raises another $100M in new funding. Next to BPI, the existing investor Novator also participates in the round led by Warburg Pincus valuing the company at $3bn.
Changes in the cybersecurity landscape drive the need for online security and privacy
Over the past few years, the cybersecurity landscape has changed dramatically due to the emergence of new technologies. These trends have sparked increased awareness of online security and privacy issues across a wider audience of internet users. In this constantly changing digital environment, VPN service providers NordVPN and Surfshark have become mainstream and remain the flagship products of Nord Security. With the new funding, the company plans to continue to drive organic business growth, expand Nord Security’s product offering, and further accelerate growth through acquisitions.
“The outstanding growth of Nord Security’s business within the last years confirms their market-leading position in the consumer cybersecurity space. We are excited to continue to back the exceptional management team on their growth journey.”
“Not a day goes by without news about the next cyber attack succeeding. That is not only because cyber threats are becoming much more frequent, but also due to them consistenlty increasing in sophistication. Nord Security has managed to create a suite of products that fits the ever evolving needs of customers.”
Luisa Frank, Investment Manager at Burda Principal Investments
Cybersecurity tools to create a radically better internet
Nord Security was founded in Vinius, Lithuania in 2012 by co-CEOs Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas. Their goal is to develop tools that are easily accessible to everyone and create a radically better internet. In addition to the NordVPN service, the product suite includes password manager NordPass, network access security software NordLayer and encrypted cloud storage NordLocker. In 2022, Nord Security merged with Surfshark, one of the most popular consumer cybersecurity companies globally, adding a series of additional consumer cybersecurity products to Nord Security’s portfolio. Today, Nord Security’s suite of products is trusted by millions of users worldwide – both businesses and individuals.
“We will continue to address the needs of our users by bringing market-leading innovative features, informative marketing, and a holistic approach towards consumer and businesses cybersecurity needs. The new financing round, together with our investors’ experience and know-how, allow us to be in an even stronger position to make the Nord name synonymous with online privacy and security.”
“Modern cybersecurity requires cutting-edge innovations, and that’s where our talented professionals make Nord Security stand out. Over the years we focused on fostering a community where driven experts are welcomed and enabled to make radically better internet. The Nord community, made up of individuals from all corners of the globe, work together to make sure that our users can be safer online, every day. And we believe there are many who share our cause and our mission.”
IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III Fund (“IK SC III”) has entered into exclusivity negotiations for the sale of its stake in Pr0ph3cy Group (“Pr0ph3cy” or “the Group”), a leading ‘one-stop-shop’ cybersecurity business in France, to global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG). This represents the first exit from the Development Capital pool within the IK SC III Fund, after a holding period of under two years. IK will be reinvesting alongside Carlyle and the management team. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Led by CEO Arthur Bataille, Pr0ph3cy Group is a leading provider of IT and cybersecurity services to a highly diversified blue-chip customer base within the public and private sectors, including: Aerospace & Defence; Financial Services; Transport and Consumer. Resulting from the merger of Silicom and Seela in 2021 in a primary leveraged buyout led by IK and together with the subsequent acquisitions of OpenCyber and Harmonie Technologie in 2022, the Company now operates across the entire cyber services value chain with expertise in: cyber strategy, risk and identity management; audit and penetration testing; configuration of security software and hardware (NetSecOps and DevSecOps); cyber e-training and upskilling solutions; and artificial intelligence.
At present, Pr0ph3cy has around 600 employees who serve hundreds of customers from its nine offices across Europe and North America. With IK’s support and including the two add-ons, the Company roughly tripled its size through the acceleration of its activity through an ambitious recruitment strategy, initiation of a significant internationalisation effort in Canada and Belgium; and delivery of Seela.io’s product roadmap to become a best-in-class, global cyber-focused e-learning tool. An overall reinforcement of group processes and managerial structure also commenced.
The Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) platform will enable Pr0ph3cy’s continued growth and the Carlyle team will work with management and IK to continue the Company’s buy-and-build strategy to gain further scale, broaden its service portfolio and expand internationally. Upon acquisition, the Group will rebrand and change its name to “NEVERHACK”.
Pierre Gallix, Managing Partner at IK and Advisor to the IK SC III Fund, said: “Over the past two years, we’ve worked in partnership with the team at Pr0ph3cy to deliver their ambitious strategic agenda and pursue numerous value creation opportunities. We have been impressed with their dedication and hard work to date and look forward to continuing our work with them, alongside Carlyle.”
Arthur Bataille, Founder and CEO of Pr0ph3cy Group, said: “With the support of IK, we have experienced a significant acceleration in growth which has helped us to evolve substantially. They understood our vision and passion for innovation from the start and have worked with my team and I to help us begin releasing our ambitions. We are proud of all that we have achieved in such a short space of time with and look forward to welcoming Carlyle as we enter the next phase of our journey. We thank the team at IK for their continued support.”
Completion of the transaction is subject to works council consultation and customary regulatory approvals.
IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in over 170 European companies. IK supports companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikpartners.com
Pr0ph3cy (to be renamed NEVERHACK) is a fast-growing cybersecurity company dedicated to protecting digital infrastructures against cyber threats to businesses and individuals. Founded in 2021, the company has rapidly established itself as a key player in the sector, thanks to the expertise of the companies it has acquired in Harmonie Technologie, Silicom and OpenCyber (cyber strategy, integration and development, pentest and technical audit), Seela (training center) and weS4FE (risk rating service). The company currently employs 600 people in 4 countries.
Pr0ph3cy aims to become a leader in cybersecurity services, building a secure digital world for all.
