Coalfire has acquired penetration testing management platform provider Neuralys Corp. The deal, disclosed this week, apparently was completed in 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This is technology M&A deal number 242 that MSSP Alert and sister site ChannelE2E covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.
Neuralys, founded in 2017, was funded by Draper Cygnus, Plug and Play, C5 Accelerate, and Dreamit Ventures, Coalfire says. However, specific funding figures were not disclosed.
The Neuralys platform was designed to "streamlines visibility, vulnerability aggregation, asset management, and dynamic reporting to enforce organizational accountability and to implement mitigation strategies," Coalfire says.
Neuralys founders and collective team have joined Coalfire's Adversary Operations practice. Neuralys co-founder Martin Sajon shifts to cyber executive advisor at Coalfire. Headcount figures associated with the deal were not disclosed.
Coalfire's Private Equity Ownership, Security Business Focus
Private equity firm Apax Partners has owned Coalfire since April 2020. Apax has a growing interest in the cybersecurity and MSSP markets. The private equity firm has also owned Herjavec Group -- a Top 250 MSSP -- since February 2021.
Meanwhile, Coalfire's cybersecurity solutions span:
- Cloud security;
- threat and vulnerability management;
- strategy, privacy and risk services;
- cloud managed services;
- secure product development;
- compliance services; and
- CoalfireONE for automated cybersecurity.
Coalfire Acquires Neuralys: Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the Neuralys deal, Coalfire Chief Operating Officer Mark Carney said:
"With this acquisition, Coalfire combines the industry's most experienced adversarial operations team and breakthrough technology to manage cyber risk in today's dynamic threat environment. It is time to move away from point-in-time, check-the-box testing and evolve to continuous asset discovery, testing and enable remediation actions through real-time dashboarding."
Added Sajon:
"We're honored to become part of Coalfire, and to bring a new digital experience to continuous cloud and application pen testing to our combined customers. Our technology, combined with Coalfire's unparalleled reputation in adversary simulation and pen testing, puts our solution on the cutting edge of providing a new standard in pen testing."
Concluded Coalfire CEO Tom McAndrew:
"As cloud security becomes a top-down, centrally managed problem to solve, Coalfire saw the need for real-time assessments, vulnerability management, and rapid remediation for our clients' digital footprints. In our 20th anniversary year, we're pleased to bring Coalfire's pen testing capabilities to the next level with the talented Neuralys team."
Pentesting Mergers and Acquisitions: M&A List
A growing number of companies offer various penetration testing services to MSPs and MSSPs.
Moreover, roughly a dozen pentesting companies have been acquired from January 2020 through April 2021.
