- ReliaQuest — an advanced cybersecurity managed service and intelligence platform for global enterprises — announced that it has raised more than $300 million
ReliaQuest — an advanced cybersecurity managed service and intelligence platform for global enterprises — announced that it has raised more than $300 million in growth financing in a round of funding led by leading global investment firm KKR with participation from Ten Eleven Ventures and ReliaQuest founder and CEO Brian Murphy.
This investment — which follows $30 million in growth equity from FTV Capital — will support ReliaQuest in accelerating the company’s growth initiatives, including international expansion and platform development.
Cybersecurity is considered a top concern for enterprises as the threat landscape continues to evolve and the global shortage of cyber talent worsens. And many enterprises end up having to turn to an increasing number of security technologies, outsourcing to managed security services providers (MSSPs), or a combination of both. The MSSP market is expected to grow nearly 15% year-over-year to reach $27.9 billion by the end of 2020, according to IDC. And many companies often fail to realize the value of these options due to poor performance and lack of effectiveness.
In order to bridge this gap, ReliaQuest developed a fundamentally different approach – which provides customers a software platform called GreyMatter and a team of highly trained cyber analysts to deliver dramatically improved security effectiveness and efficiency. GreyMatter is known as the first cloud-native SaaS platform that consolidates, normalizes, and correlates data from customers’ existing cyber technologies, vastly increasing visibility across the enterprise. The platform utilizes artificial intelligence and automation — which enable continuous threat detection, threat hunting, and remediation. As a result, customers benefit from a significantly more effective security posture and are able to maximize the value and effectiveness of their existing cybersecurity investments.
KKR’s investment in ReliaQuest follows several years of breakout growth and innovation in the cybersecurity market. And the company’s revenue has grown more than 450% in the past three years on the strength of relationships with some of the world’s most prominent brands. And the company plans to add another 100 employees to its ranks worldwide through the course of 2020, building on an industry-leading employee retention rate of 91%.
KKR will be making the investment through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II, which is a fund dedicated to growth equity investment opportunities in the technology space.
Advisors on the agreement include RBC Capital Markets, Sidley Austin LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Latham & Watkins LLP.
KEY QUOTES:
“ReliaQuest’s GreyMatter platform is supported by some of the top security talent in the industry, enabling enterprises to increase visibility across cloud and on-premises technologies, allowing them to reduce risk and compromises. The investment from KKR and Ten Eleven is an important step that allows ReliaQuest to continue to scale globally while innovating and accelerating the development of the GreyMatter platform and follows what was a foundational investment from FTV four years ago. The entire ReliaQuest team has worked hard to get where we are, and we are excited about the future as we continue to work alongside our customers to solve one of the largest technical challenges of our time.”
— Brian Murphy, founder and CEO of ReliaQuest
“With its best-in-class technology, ReliaQuest is helping companies protect their digital footprint, which is more important than ever. As a ReliaQuest customer ourselves, we’ve experienced firsthand how seamless and effective their platform is, and are thrilled to have the opportunity to invest behind it.”
— Stephen Shanley, Director at KKR
“We’re excited to be working with the ReliaQuest team as they continue to scale globally and help organizations secure their environments.”
— Patrick Devine, Principal at KKR
“In these challenging times, enterprises need powerful, resourceful solutions to manage their cybersecurity operations. ReliaQuest has developed a new approach to this challenge with its GreyMatter platform, giving security teams the ‘superpower’ to see more, detect and investigate faster, and make better decisions. We look forward to partnering with ReliaQuest as they offer enterprises a new way of obtaining advanced cybersecurity protection.”
— Ten Eleven General Partner Mark Hatfield
