February 28, 2018

PhishMe acquired by private equity consortium at USD 400M valuation

The acquisition seeks to meet growing demand for anti-phishing solutions by leveraging PhishMe’s expertise in the industry.

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Cyber-security enabler PhishMe has been acquired by a private-equity consortium  which includes BlackRock and Pamplona Capital Management. With this acquisition, the consortium aims to provide anti-phishing solutions to the business segment by leveraging PhishMe’s prowess in the market.

PhishMe is a seven-year-old cyber-security startup that helps enterprises train employees in recognizing fraudulent emails and malicious activities through educational courses. The phishing scam detection company allows employees to analyze threats at speed and quickly report the same to their IT heads.

According to the consortium, the startup is valued at USD 400M and post the acquisition, PhishMe will be rechristened as ‘Cofense’, with operations continuing as they were.

PhishMe (now Cofense) say that the firm is backed by strong capital investment and the acquisition move came as a result of an aligned vision for growth. Explaining this, Aaron Higbee, CTO and co-founder of Cofense commented:

Our brand is inline with our vision. Cool. But even better, we’ve got deeper financial backing to make the vision a reality. The strategic vision is growing while financial pressure is shrinking.

Speaking about the offering given by the newly acquired company, Rohyt Belani, CEO and Co-Founder of Cofense, said:

PhishMe was founded to challenge the cliché — human is the weakest link.

Our 1700+ enterprise and mid-market customers affirm that not only can their employees be conditioned to be less susceptible to cyberattacks, but, in fact, they can be turned into sensors of such attacks that provide very timely intelligence.