Another deal is boosting the D.C. region’s attractiveness as a cybersecurity acquisition target.
Security software firm Imperva is acquiring Arlington-based Distil Networks, an 8-year-old cybersecurity startup that made its name as a pioneer of defending bot attacks.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but this is only the fifth publicly announced acquisition in Imperva’s history, according to VentureBeat.
Founded in 2011, Distil Networks operates in bot management, which is identifying whether web traffic comes from humans or machines. It has raised about $60 million since inception, from high-profile backers including Techstars, Foundry Group, Bessemer Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank.
The deal follows FireEye's $250 million acquisition of Verodin, another local cybersecurity startup caught in the industry’s consolidation wave.
It comes as Distil reaches about 100 employees, with 35 at its Arlington headquarters and others in San Francisco, Detroit, North Carolina, London and Stockholm. The company told the WBJ last month that it has 300 customers, including 50 large enterprises toward which it was shifting its business.
It’s been on a hot streak of late, being named in Deloitte's 2018 Technology Fast 500 Awards. Distil’s goal – according to the WBJ’s May report – was to exceed its current $20 million in revenue, up from $14 million last year, and achieve profitability in 2020.
Founded in 2002, Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Imperva went public in 2011 before being taken private again last year in a $2.1 billion deal. It supplies cybersecurity products covering web application firewalls, DDoS protection and threat intelligence, among others. Last year, the company acquired Prevoty, a startup that monitors cyberattacks inside application stacks.
“The end goal is to fully integrate Distil's infrastructure into Imperva's application security suite, to maintain its advantage of a single-stack solution,” Distil co-founder and Chief Product and Strategy Officer Rami Essaid said in an email. “By becoming part of a single-stack solution, Distil will gain even more comprehensive attack insights and analytics, as well as the opportunity to integrate with new areas of technology.”
He said the acquisition offer was the right opportunity at the right time.
“We've seen a shift in the security needs of CISOs and CTOs; they used to want point products, but now, they need all-encompassing platforms to address every security need. In order to solve the customer needs of the future, we needed the right platform partner, which we found in Imperva.”
