One of Baltimore’s largest cybersecurity firms just got even bigger.
ZeroFox announced a deal Monday that will put the company on the New York Stock Exchange as ZFOX.
According to a press release, ZeroFox will merge with L&F Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
SPACs are an increasingly popular way for companies to become publicly traded without having an initial public offering, or IPO. A SPAC company is already publicly traded. It raises funds specifically to acquire a company and take it public. SPACs can prevent an unpredictable or volatile IPO, though they generally have less transparency.
In the case of ZeroFox, the acquisition by L&F Acquisition Corp. will allow it to become a publicly-traded company with an expected equity value of $1.4 billion. ZeroFox said that as part of the transaction, it is also acquiring IDX, a cybersecurity company based in Portland, Oregon, that was founded in 2003.
The combined company will be known as ZeroFox Holdings and “will have over 650 employees and serve nearly 2,000 customers including five of the Fortune Top 10 and the largest companies in media, technology, retail and energy,” according to the press release.
The deal still needs regulatory approval and the backing of L&F Acquisition Corp. shareholders, which ZeroFox expects to happen in the next six months or so.
Once the deal is complete, ZeroFox said it will have more than $250 million in cash, including $175 million from L&F Acquisition and $170 million in financing led by Monarch Alternative Capital. Other investors include Victory Park Capital, Corbin Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Highland Capital, Alsop Louie Partners, Blue Venture Fund, Peloton Equity, Forgepoint Capital and ZeroFox’s CEO James Foster.
“Since ZeroFox was founded in 2013, we have helped companies address emerging security challenges caused by the transformational shift to a ‘digital everything’ world. This rapid digital transformation has made companies vulnerable to attackers, resulting in the highest breach rate the industry has ever seen,” Foster said in a statement. “We believe that external cybersecurity must be a top three priority and part of the critical security tech stack for Chief Information Security Officers because perimeter firewalls and internal endpoint agents alone are not enough to protect company assets and customers.”
Monday’s announcement is just the latest expansion for ZeroFox, which has grown rapidly in recent years.
ZeroFox announced in July that it had acquired Phoenix-based Vigilante, a company that specializes in identifying and monitoring cybercriminal activity on the dark web. Last year, Zerofox acquired Cyveillance, a Virginia-based business unite of LookingGlass Cyber Solutions Inc.
The BBJ also reported in July that ZeroFox had more than 500 total employees and offices in Phoenix, India, Chile, Israel and the United Kingdom, in addition to its Baltimore headquarters.
