Enterprise Weekly #398: Money Pours Into Security M&A, Conference Happy Hours, and More
There were some big moves in security M&A this week.
PE firm Thoma Bravo acquired ForgeRock, an identity and access management (IAM) company, for $2.3B. This is their third acquisition in the identity space this year, running them a total tab of $12B. While the first two companies were unprofitable at the time of purchase, rumors have it that Thoma Bravo is looking to bring a consolidated identity approach to the market and build one mega identity company.
IAM is a hot topic in cloud security. However, major cloud player AWS dropped the ball in this area. Datadog's recent survey of AWS customer security breaches shows that the complexity of AWS’ IAM may lead organizations to unintentionally expose sensitive resources. The biggest challenges are: 1) securely managing users at scale, and 2) getting a handle on root user credential usage - we smell opportunity in the air!
Additionally, another PE giant Vista Equity Partners acquired KnowBe4, security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, for a whopping $4.6B.
Last week we reported security remains a top budget priority for enterprises, startup funding is painting a more nuanced picture. In Q3, security funding had its 4th straight quarter of declines. However, in line with other industries, growth rounds took the biggest hit, while Seed rounds (where we spend our time at Work-Bench) are actually increasing.
🍻 Lastly, catch our teammate Priyanka Somrah on her conference circuit. She’s hosting 2 upcoming events - space is limited, so please email or DM to snag an RSVP:
Tuesday, October 18th - “Data Drinks” with a group of data practitioners at the Coalesce Conference by dbt Labs in New Orleans
Wednesday, October 26th - Happy Hour with co-hosts Bessemer Venture Partners at KubeCon in Detroit
📚 Read more news:
CNBC: Microsoft Cloud Leader Says Companies Aren’t Holding Off Cloud Spending as Inflation Mounts
TechCrunch: Brex Lays Off 11% of Staff
Protocol: Why CrowdStrike Wants to Be a Broader Enterprise IT Player
WSJ: VC Firms Buy Up Public Tech Stocks as Startup Market Stalls
📚 More to follow:
Company: Spring Health
Role: Customer Success Manager
Technology: Mental Healthcare
Funding: $300M from Work-Bench, Northzone, Rethink, RRE, General Catalyst, and Tiger Global
⭐ Company of the Week ⭐
Ribbon raises $2.9M led by Octopus Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • London, UK
Founder: Axel Thomson
Dandi raises $3.7M led by Springbank and Alleycorp Impact
HR Tech • Seed • New York, NY
Relay raises $5M led by Khosla Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • San Francisco, CA
TaTio raises $5.3M led by Mensch Capital Partners and Cresson Management
HR Tech • Seed • Middletown, DE
Payable raises $6M led by CRV and Earlybird Venture Capital
Future of Work • Seed • London, UK
Nudge Security raises $7M led by Ballistic Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Austin, TX
Redbird raises $7.6M led by B Capital
Data / AI / Analytics • Seed • New York, NY
Levity.ai raises $8.3M led by Balderton Capital and Chalfen Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Berlin, Germany
NocoDB raises $10.5M led by Decibel and OSS Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • London, UK
Ntropy raises $11M led by Lakestar
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • New York, NY
Diagrid raises $20M led by Norwest Venture Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Federal Way, WA
Vectara raises $20M led by Vertex Ventures, GTM Capital, Essence VC and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Cupertino, CA
SecuriThings raises $21M led by U.S. Venture Partners
Risk / Security • Series B • Tel Aviv, Israel
IronVest raises $23M led by Accomplice
Risk / Security • Seed • New York, NY
Endor Labs raises $25M led by Lightspeed, Dell Technologies Capital and Sierra Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Palo Alto, CA
Vanta raises $40M led by Crowdstrike and Others
Risk / Security • Venture • San Francisco, CA
DataGrail raises $45M led by Third Point Ventures
Risk / Security • Series C • New York, NY
Stairwell raises $45M led by Section 32
Risk / Security • Series B • Mountain View, CA
Immersive Labs raises $66M led by Ten Eleven Ventures
Risk / Security • Venture • Bristol, UK
Connex One raises $103.7M led by GP Bullhound
Future of Work • Series C • Manchester, UK
Factorial raises $120M led by Atomico
HR Tech • Series C • Barcelona, Spain
TripActions raises $154M led by Andreessen Horowitz and Premji Invest
Future of Work • Debt • Palo Alto, CA
Thoma Bravo acquires ForgeRock for $2.3B
Risk / Security • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA
Vista Equity Partners acquires KnowBe4 for $4.6B
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Clearwater, FL
Bitrise acquires Flare.Build for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA