Leading name in cybersecurity, Bitdefender announced today that Vitruvian Partners, the independent European private equity firm, has acquired a significant minority stake of approximately 30% in the company from existing shareholder Axxess Capital, which values the business at over $600 million.
The investment comes on the back of significant expansion of Bitdefender’s global operations and product offering. Bitdefender has scaled up its international operations significantly over the past few years, in particularly driven by corporate customers addressed by the Company’s Enterprise Solutions headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. As a result, more than 40% of sales are currently generated in the US, which continues to be the Company’s fastest growing region.
Florin Talpes, Founder and CEO at Bitdefender said “This transaction demonstrates the rapid growth and scale of our business as we are now valued at over $600 million. Vitruvian’s extensive experience investing in high growth technology companies endorses our strategy for international growth and in particular the significant investment we are making in building our Enterprise Solutions offering and our presence in the United States.”
Globally, Bitdefender employs 1,300 staff across nine offices, supporting customers in over 150 countries and a network of more than 7,000 reseller partners.
While commenting on acquiring the minority stake in the Bitdefender Stephen Byrne from Vitruvian Partners said, “Bitdefender’s achievements are directly in line with what we seek for new investments: support of exceptional management teams in businesses that illustrate a significant opportunity to create strategic value. We look forward to partnering with Florin and the team for the next stage of Bitdefender’s innovation and expansion.”
“We continue to operate with a sound financial footing – this enables us to further expand and broaden our product portfolio and so ensure we stay ahead of cyber criminals to protect better our customers,” concluded Talpes.