Portland’s Circle Media has been acquired by Massachusetts-based digital security company Aura.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aura plans to integrate Circle’s parental internet monitoring technology into its own all-in-one offering, as well as develop new capabilities next year.
Circle has 47 employees, all of whom will join the new owner. Within that group, 27 employees are in the Portland-area, working remotely as the company gave up its office space this year.
Circle’s technology is a small piece of hardware and an app that monitors home networks. It can also filter and limit internet usage on those devices. The service has a free and premium version as well as a version that does not require the hardware.
Last year, the company named longtime executive Anne Bryan as CEO. Circle was founded in 2014 by Jelani Memory, Lance Charlish and Tiebing Zhang.
All three founders have left. Memory founded the children’s media company A Kids Company About.
Overall, Circle raised $30 million from investors.
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Its new owner Aura is a security subscription service that covers online finances, personal information and devices. In October, Aura raised a $200 million Series F round led by Madrone Capital Partners.
“We're looking forward to welcoming Circle's complementary skill sets to Aura,” said founder and CEO Hari Ravichandran in a written statement. “Their engineering expertise will allow us to quickly and effectively integrate these two offerings.”
This integration into the Aura app will include internet and website filtering, internet and screen time limits and mobile device location tracking.
Ravichandran noted that parental controls have been a top concern from customers of Aura and an important element in the company’s product roadmap.
“The internet can open up a world of experiences for children, but the internet can also be a scary place. The things a child does online could expose the whole family to risk of digital crime,” he said. “With the addition of the technology and expertise at Circle, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of these important safety features to our customers.”
