Cybersecurity company Proofpoint announced Thursday that it plans to acquire Hornetsecurity, a security provider specialized in Microsoft 365 software tools, in a deal reportedly valued at around $1 billion.
The deal is a long time coming for Hanover, Germany-based Hornetsecurity, which was founded in 2007 and has raised multiple funding rounds over the years. It secured a 2022 growth round from private equity firm TA Associates, its last reported financing, and also counts PSG Equity and Verdane as core stakeholders.
The acquisition comes amid investor anticipation that Proofpoint is gearing up to go public. If that happens, it would be the second time for the 23-year-old company, which first went public in 2012. It is currently owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which took the company private in 2021 in a $12.3 billion transaction.
Silicon Valley-based Proofpoint has been a prodigious acquirer as both a public and private company, with at least 25 known acquisitions to date prior to Hornetsecurity, per Crunchbase data. Most recently, Proofpoint bought Normalyze, a venture-backed data security platform, in October.
If an IPO is in the works, the Hornetsecurity acquisition could significantly boost Proofpoint’s appeal to investors. Per the acquisition announcement, Hornetsecurity currently brings in over $160 million in annual recurring revenue, with more than 20% year-over-year growth.
Cyber’s funding growth
The deal also follows a comparatively strong period for cybersecurity startup funding. Total funding to VC-backed cybersecurity startups topped $2.7 billion in Q1, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 29% increase from the last quarter of 2024.
Cybersecurity was also in the spotlight in March due to the largest acquisition of a venture-backed company ever: Google parent Alphabet’s planned purchase of cloud security unicorn Wiz for $32 billion.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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