Insight Partners acquires enterprise security firm Armis in $1.1 billion deal

Insight Partners has acquired Armis Security in a deal worth $1.1 billion to gather more cybersecurity firms under the umbrella of its $20 billion asset portfolio. 

On Monday, the venture capital and private equity firm said the deal is the company's largest enterprise security acquisition to date. Insight will pay $1.1 billion in cash, with CapitalG contributing $100 million together with "rollover from certain existing stockholders."   

Founded in 2015 by Yevgeny Dibrov, Tomer Schwartz, and Nadir Izrael, Armis Security is based in California and specializes in "agentless" device security. 

The company provides enterprise-grade security solutions for businesses, healthcare, retailers, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Armis counts Fortune 500 organizations as clients. 

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The company previously raised $112 million through four funding rounds. The last round, a Series C, was led by Sequoia Capital and Insight was a participant. A total of $65 million was raised. 

Armis believes that by next year up to 90 percent of all connected devices will be unmanaged and, therefore, potentially unsecured, offering ample opportunity for threat actors to exploit them as conduits to obtain access to wider networks. The cybersecurity firm's solutions aim to manage these endpoints by quarantining any device deemed suspicious or potentially malicious. 

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Armis will continue to operate independently under Dibrov and Izrael, acting as CEO and CTO, respectively. 

Insight will provide support through its business strategy and scaling division and the company's founders Jeff Horing and Gili Raanan, alongside MD Teddie Wardi, will serve on the Armis board. 

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"Having achieved exponential growth to date, we are proud to be the partner Armis can leverage to help execute their vision of protecting unmanaged devices proliferating every vertical around the world. We see the huge problem they are solving," said Horing. "Armis has established themselves as the leader in the enterprise IoT security space and we believe this team and their technology will continue to transform the way unmanaged devices are secured."

Insight Partners currently accounts for over $20 billion in assets and has invested in over 300 companies worldwide. 

The deal is expected to close in February subject to regulatory approval. 

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Previous and related coverage

• Proofpoint acquires insider threat intelligence firm ObserveIT in $225 million deal
  
• Fortinet acquires security automation provider CyberSponse
  
• Thoma Bravo to buy Sophos for $3.9 billion
  

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