Digital fraud detection company BioCatch has a new majority shareholder: A UK-based private equity firm, Permirais acquiring shares in the company “primarily” from existing investors, including Bain Capital, Maverick Ventures and Tech Opportunities, in a secondary market transaction that values BioCatch at $1.3 billion.
Existing shareholders Sapphire Ventures and Macquarie Capital are also increasing their stake in BioCatch, although the companies did not say by how much. Permira also declined to confirm how much of a majority stake it now owns in BioCatch.
This is the second notable private equity deal announced in the cybersecurity space in less than a week. Thoma Bravo said last Friday that he planned to buy Darktrace in a $5 billion deal that would take the British cybersecurity company private.
Permira last year acquired a “significant minority stake” in BioCatch in a similar secondary purchase deal with existing investors, becoming the company’s No. 3 shareholder after Bain and Maverick. BioCatch passed the $1 billion valuation mark at that time, according to in the exhibitions of that timemeaning investors have increased their valuation of the Israeli cybersecurity company since then.
Founded in 2011, Tel Aviv-based BioCatch develops technology that helps companies such as banks monitor users’ online behavior to determine whether a customer is real or a fraud. This can help detect, for example, bots trying to gain access to online banking accounts through strategies such as “credential stuffing”.
The company has raised well over $200 million to date, including installments from financial giants such as American Express, HSBC, Barclays, Citi and National Australia Bank.
This deal represents one of Permira’s largest known acquisitions in recent years, overshadowed by the 2022 take-private deal that saw Permira and Hellman & Friedman acquire Zendesk for $10.2 billion. Other major deals include the $5.8 billion purchase of email security company Mimecast in 2021, while bought Ergomed last November for about $877 million.*
Permira says it will use its investment and position as majority shareholder to bring a “growth mindset” to BioCatch, with plans to expand further across Europe.
“Permira has supported the topic of cybersecurity for several years, and within that, the online fraud detection, customer identity and access management markets have become a clear focus,” said Stefan Dziarski, partner and co-head of Permira Growth Opportunities. Press release. “We have watched BioCatch with enthusiasm for many years and now, having become a shareholder since early 2023, our confidence in the business, its growth potential, its technology leadership and its management team continues to grow.”
*TechCrunch has updated this article to provide clarification on other recent, significant Permira acquisitions.
