Cybersecurity firm secures ‘transformational’ investment
Cambridge’s eSentire expects to hire 200 more employees in next 24 months
CAMBRIDGE — Fast-growing cybersecurity firm eSentire expects to hire 200 more employees in the next 24 months after securing a large investment from a private equity firm.
The Cambridge-based company won’t disclose the amount of the investment, but chief executive officer J. Paul Haynes said it is many times greater than the US$35 million eSentire has raised since it was founded in 2001.
“It is a nine-figure transaction,” said Haynes.
“This is like transformational funding, we have never had anything of this magnitude to allow us to seize the opportunity that is in front of us,” he said.
The funding, announced Monday, comes from Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm based in New York City with more than US$44 billion in assets under management. Since it was founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has invested more than US$60 billion in about 780 companies in more than 40 countries. A representative of Warburg Pincus will be appointed to eSentire’s board of directors.
The company now employs about 250 at its headquarters on Pinebush Road, where its security operations centre, and research and development team are located. Another 50 employees are based in London, England and in Ireland.
During the next two years, the company plans to hire 200 employees in sales, marketing, engineering, and research and development. “Lots of hiring,” said Haynes. “We have a massive R&D commitment.”
The company has developed an area of cybersecurity called “managed detection and response.” It is also known as “the hunting method.” That approach assumes hackers have breached firewalls and are inside a network. The company’s software hunts for anomalies in its clients’ networks and neutralizes the threats. Haynes said eSentire is the biggest cybersecurity firm in the world that uses this method and has 80 per cent of the market for managed detection and response. The technology was pioneered by eSentire.