Fortinet has acquired Edinburgh Napier spinout ZoneFox for an undisclosed sum and will integrate the company’s machine learning technology into its own cybersecurity offering.
ZoneFox, a UK-based cybersecurity spinout of Edinburgh Napier University, was acquired by cybersecurity technology developer Fortinet yesterday.
Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
ZoneFox provides a cloud-based cyberthreat detection and response platform that uses on machine learning and enables security teams to track who is accessing data and who is doing things they should not be, either accidentally or maliciously.
The technology is based on research by founder and chief executive Jamie Graves, who gained a PhD in digital forensics from Edinburgh Napier University. The spinout was initially launched as Inquisitive Systems in 2010, before ZoneFox was incorporated in 2013.
Fortinet will integrate ZoneFox’s technology into its own software suite, Fortinet Security Fabric, and expects the spinout’s machine learning capabilities will enhance its products FortiClient and FortiSIEM.
ZoneFox most recently closed a £3.6m ($4.4m) series A round in March 2017 led by angel syndicate Archangels, with participation from the state-owned Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) and TriCap.
The series A round added to $3m in seed funding raised previously, including $992,000 received from SIB, Archangels and TriCap in 2015.
Graves said: “We are pleased to join the Fortinet team and bring together our shared vision of alleviating chief information security officer concerns about insider threats.
“Integrating our solution with the Fortinet Security Fabric will allow us to extend our reach to a broad spectrum of Fortinet and third-party solutions to solve customers’ most difficult challenges in network security.”
