A startup that helps law enforcement hack into smart phones will add approximately 50 employees following an investment from software investment firm Thoma Bravo LP.
Grayshift LCC currently has approximately 200 employees, half of whom are based in Atlanta. It has employees internationally and across the U.S. Approximately half of its new hires will also be Atlanta-based, said CEO David Miles.
About the investment: The investment will be used to build Grayshift's international team and expand its product capabilities, Miles said. Thoma Bravo will also assist the company by looking into acquisitions of companies in the same industry.
Grayshift declined to state the amount of the investment.
Earlier this year, the San Francisco Business Times listed Thoma Bravo as the third-largest private equity firm in the Bay Area with $103 billion under management. In 2015, Thoma Bravo considered buying Atlanta-based NCR Corp. but dropped the deal after the company posted a $343 million quarterly loss.
Why it matters: Atlanta has long held a reputation as a cybersecurity hotspot, building from the success of Internet Security Systems, a company founded by Georgia Tech graduates, which sold to IBM for $1.3 billion in 2006. Atlanta cybersecurity companies that raised substantial capital recently include email security startup Ironscales Inc., which raised $64 million in December, and Apptega, which raised $37 million in March.
The raise also comes at a tumultuous time for startups to raise capital. Investors have largely pulled back from tech businesses due to company valuations being reset and uncertain economic conditions. Atlanta's OneTrust laid off almost 1,000 employees as a result of these strains. Marketing tech startup Terminus and Sonar Software also laid off employees in the recent weeks.
About the company: Grayshift assists law enforcement and government agencies obtain access to encrypted data in mobile devices for criminal investigations. Today, the company’s devices are used in approximately 1,200 agencies across 35 countries. Miles founded Grayshift with Braden Thomas, Justin Fisher and Sean Larsson in 2016.
“Every law enforcement agency has this problem where you need to process digital evidence, but the means to extract data off of modern mobile devices is very limited,” said Miles. “There's very few options available to you, and so we brought our cybersecurity expertise to bear to build the technology.”
In July 2021, the company moved into a new office at the Mansell Overlook development in Roswell. The move came after growing from less than 30 employees to approximately 120 within a year and raising $47 million from Philadelphia-based PeakEquity Partners.
The company was featured in this year’s Pacesetter Awards by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as the 19th fastest-growing company in the city. Between 2019 and 2021, the company grew its revenue by 193.96% and its employees by 460.71%.
Digital Forensics: According to research firm Future Marketing Insights, the global digital forensics market will rise 11.2% from 2022 to 2030 and reach $23 billion. By allowing law agencies to access data from mobile devices, Grayshift solves a growing need in the law enforcement, said Miles.
“There's increasingly so much data to process that it's almost impossible right to analyze all of it,” said Miles. “I would say that law enforcement has been very slow to adopt the cloud and its analytical processes … there's a lot of opportunity to reexamine how we analyze data.”
