EclecticIQ raises €20 million in Series C funding

AMSTERDAM, Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EclecticIQ, a global threat intelligence, hunting and response technology provider, has raised €20 million ($24 million) in Series C financing, led by Ace Management, Europe's leading cyber growth investor.

Other contributors to the funding round include Capricorn Digital Growth Fund and Quest for Growth, Invest-NL, Arches Capital and existing investors INKEF Capital, KEEN Venture Partners and KPN ventures. This brings the company's total funding raised to €47 million over a four-year period, making it among the best funded global cybersecurity scale-ups based in Europe.

Funding will go towards deepening the company's commitment to government, large enterprises and service providers, expanding its portfolio and increasing the company's global footprint. With this investment EclecticIQ will accelerate its strategy to transform from a leading threat intelligence platform vendor into an innovative cybersecurity leader across the globe.

As cyber threats continue to evolve rapidly, intelligence-led cybersecurity has become the norm. EclecticIQ's growing customer base relies on its threat intelligence platform as the single source of truth for cyber threats and incidents. The financing will drive further innovation of the platform with new use cases, enabling governments, large enterprises and service providers to effectively manage threat intelligence, create situational awareness and adopt an intelligence-led cybersecurity approach.

Having mastered threat intelligence technology, the company sees adjacent opportunities in operationalizing threat intelligence, as this is a problem that has not been solved in the market yet. With the recent acquisition of PolyLogyx's end-point technology, the company is well positioned to develop new solutions that re-imagine how organizations detect, hunt and respond to sophisticated threats.

To accelerate growth, EclecticIQ will use the funding to expand its commercial teams in Europe and the United States, and establish a presence in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Leveraging its experience with governments, and some of the most targeted enterprises globally, the company will expand its focus to new segments and strengthen its global partner ecosystem.

François Lavaste, Partner at Ace Management who will join EclecticIQ's board of directors, said: "We are convinced that Ace Management's new investment will help the company to improve and accelerate its solutions that enable the world's biggest governments and commercial enterprises to identify and protect against the most intense cyber threats."

Joep Gommers, EclecticIQ's co-founder and chief executive officer said, "It is exciting to bring in a high-caliber cyber investor like Ace Management, which shares our vision of threat intelligence at the core of cybersecurity, and sees the opportunity to transform the industry by solving massive challenges faced in threat detection, hunting and response. This financial investment will enable EclecticIQ to drive the industry forward and support our clients more effectively facing an ever-evolving threat landscape."

EclecticIQ has seen impressive growth over the years:

• Growth: In 2019, the company grew its revenue by 84 percent by successfully expanding the company's market segments from government to larger financial organizations, telecoms and big tech companies.
• Product: EclecticIQ is continuing to push the envelope, with a new intelligence ingestion engine introduced to the EclecticIQ Platform, improving robustness and scalability of the company's core threat intelligence technology.
• Industry alliances: The company is a sponsor member of OASIS, EclecticIQ joined the Open Cybersecurity Alliance (OCA), along with some of the biggest names in cybersecurity.
• Leadership: The company further strengthened its leadership team, adding Wytse Bouma (ex Rockstart) as CFO, and Ciaran Bradley (ex Adaptive Mobile, Kemp) as CTO.
• Board: Three new members have been appointed to its board: Ben Verwaayen (KEEN Venture Partners, previously CEO of BT Group PLC Alcatel-Lucent, President of KPN Telecom and Vice-Chairman of Lucent Technologies), François Lavaste (Partner, Ace Management) and Katrin Geyskens (Partner, Capricorn Partners). The Board is chaired by Sam van der Feltz (ex Unilever, TNS & EMI).

Bryan, Garnier & Co acted sole financial advisor and sole placement agent for EclecticIQ.

To learn more about the funding and what the company is doing with the investment read the blog post by Joep Gommers here.

About EclecticIQ
EclecticIQ is a global threat intelligence, hunting and response technology provider. Its clients are some of the most targeted organizations, globally. To build tomorrow's defenses today, these organizations have to understand the threats against them – and align their efforts and investments to mitigate their risks. EclecticIQ helps governments, large enterprises and service providers effectively manage threat intelligence, create situational awareness and adopt an intelligence-led cybersecurity approach. The company extended its focus towards hunting and response with the acquisition of Polylogyx's end-point technology in 2020. Founded in 2014, EclecticIQ operates globally with offices across Europe, North America, and via certified value-add partners. More information

About Ace Management
Ace Management, a subsidiary of Tikehau Capital, is a private equity firm specialised in strategic industries and technologies, with over €1Bn in assets under management.
Founded in 2000, Ace invests through sector-focused approaches (midmarket private equity in Aerospace & Defence and venture and growth capital investments in Cybersecurity / Digital Trust). Ace has built its model on strategic partnerships with large corporates (including Airbus, Safran, Dassault Aviation, Thales, EDF, Naval Group, Sopra Steria), which invest in its funds and maintain an ongoing dialogue with the firm, enabling Ace to take a differentiated approach to investing. Ace operates offices in Paris (HQ), Toulouse, Bordeaux and Montréal, and benefits from the worldwide presence of Tikehau Capital. More information

About Capricorn Partners
Capricorn Partners is an independent European manager of venture capital and equity funds, investing in innovative European companies with technology as competitive advantage. The investment team of Capricorn is composed of experienced investment managers with deep technology expertise and a broad industrial experience. Capricorn Partners is managing the venture capital funds Capricorn Digital Growth Fund, Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund, Capricorn ICT Arkiv, Capricorn Health–tech Fund, Capricorn Cleantech Fund and Capricorn Fusion China Fund. In addition, it is the management company of Quest for Growth, quoted on NYSE Euronext Brussels, and the investment manager of Quest Cleantech Fund and Quest+, sub–funds of Quest Management SICAV, registered in Luxembourg. More information

About Invest-NL
Invest-NL is an impact investor committed to businesses and projects that will make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative. Its focus lies on the energy transition and on innovative, fast-growing companies, or scale-ups. Invest-NL supports innovative entrepreneurs through financing and advice according to one simple principle: impact is our goal, return is our means. As the Dutch partner for European investment institutions, Invest-NL is dedicated to cooperation and always works together with other investors. Invest-NL is headquartered in Amsterdam and employs a staff of 50 people. More information

About Arches Capital
Arches Capital is a fast-growing group of business angels that invests in startup and scale-up companies with a large growth potential. Through its investments Arches Capital bridges the gap between formal investors (VCs) and informal investors (business angels), by joining the best of both worlds: "we source, select and invest like a VC; we engage, care and inspire as the angel we are". Arches Capital differentiates itself by bringing superior deal flow, professional knowledge and a lower risk profile to the participating angel investors, while supporting its successful portfolio companies from start to exit through follow-on investments. For this Arches Capital is building the leading platform of actively engaged business angels that know how to operate and manage their investments in a professional and standardized manner. More information

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SOURCE EclecticIQ