A Boston-based identity security startup is bringing its technology and its team to a multinational corporation.
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Thursday in a blog post that it intends to acquire Oort, a startup known for its identity threat detection and response technology. The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal, which Cisco said it plans to close in the first quarter of FY24.
In some ways, this acquisition is a homecoming for Oort founder Matt Caulfield. The startup’s chief executive launched Oort in 2019. But prior to founding his own venture, Caulfield worked at Cisco for a decade and led the Boston innovation team there.
Cisco said it has also been a strategic investor in Oort since 2022. Oort has raised around $15 million in venture funding since its launch, according to Crunchbase data. The company announced last October that it had raised this amount during seed and Series A rounds.
“Joining forces with Cisco, we can supercharge our mission and truly transform the cybersecurity industry. We've built a stellar product, built an amazing team, and defined a new market in identity security. Now we get to amplify all three. Cisco shares our passion for innovation and we're excited for the next chapter,” Caulfield wrote in a message to BostInno. “Cisco has the resources and we have the know-how to bring our vision for identity-centric security into reality.”
Caulfield said the pandemic was a big driver in their business growth. People began working remotely and didn’t need to be in an office or on a company laptop to work, he said, which opened them up to security threats.
“You simply sign in. Well, this shift has left a huge hole in security programs everywhere. We've seen a growing trend of not just phishing but even multi-factor authentication is being bypassed by attackers,” Caulfield said.
Raj Chopra, chief product officer of Cisco’s security business group, said in the blog post that this acquisition is part of Cisco’s AI-driven Security Cloud product development. Chopra said Oort brings capabilities like identifying visibility gaps across disparate data sources and determining the “blast radius” of an identity-related incident. He said he expects Oort’s technology to enhance Cisco’s Duo Identity Access Management and Extended Detection and Response portfolios.
Cisco said the Oort team will join the company’s security business group. Until the deal closes, Caulfield said Oort will continue to operate independently and sign new customers.
“The next few weeks are a critical period to make sure that we can catch all the new interest we're receiving from this major announcement,” he said.
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