We take a look at the biggest funding rounds in the European cybersecurity sector in 2017. In addition, we review the two latest M&A deals that have taken place in this area: SIBS and IBM join forces to develop solutions against financial fraud and Sonae IM leads a €12.3M financing round of Arctic Wolf.
We take a look at the biggest funding rounds in the European cybersecurity sector in 2017. In addition, we review the two latest M&A deals that have taken place in this area: SIBS and IBM join forces to develop solutions against financial fraud and Sonae IM leads a €12.3M financing round of Arctic Wolf.
SIBS and IBM team up to detect financial fraud in real time
SIBSa Portuguese electronic payment systems company, and IBM have announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop a real-time financial fraud detection system.
This tool will monitor, prevent, detect, intercept and investigate fraud in payment processes and any other transaction-related process, and will be available to numerous entities globally, including banks, card issuers, retailers, ATMs, etc. According to IBM, "the new solution promises huge savings for financial institutions by identifying and shortening fraud pattern detection cycles".
The objective is to combine SIBS' know-how and its security and anti-fraud procedures with IBM's next-generation cognitive technology for financial services. SIBS will leverage IBM's Counter Fraud Management for Safer Payments solution, already used by some of the world's largest and most complex payment portfolios, with unique cognitive capabilities, machine learning and scalability for greater accuracy in fraud detection, greatly reducing false alarms and operational costs for institutions.
Sonae IM takes an equity stake in Arctic Wolf
The Portuguese technology company Sonae Investment Management (Sonae IM) has announced that it is taking a stake in the capital of the US company Arctic Wolf Networksa specialist in enterprise cyber security with a disruptive approach to the market. The round also saw the participation of Knollwood Investment Advisorywhich joins Arctic Wolf's shareholding structure with the investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint.
Sonae IM's entry into Arctic Wolf comes as part of the company's $14.5M (€12.3M) funding round, aimed at strengthening the expansion of its Security Operations Centre (SOC-as-a-service) in the European and North American markets. According to Arctic Wolf, "the increasing sophistication of cyber attacks and the professionalisation of cyber criminals make the SOC an essential element of modern cyber security".
Sonae IM strengthens with this transaction its cybersecurity portfolio, which includes Spain's S21sec, one of Europe's leading managed cybersecurity services companies (MSSP) with a strong presence in Latin America, as well as its leading position in Portugal since the acquisition of Sysvalue last year.
Sonae's portfolio is made up of technology-based companies related to retail and telecommunications, including companies such as WeDo Techonologies, S21sec, Saphety and Bizdirect, with 11 direct investments made in 2016.