Cloud services provider Akamai Technologies has agreed to acquire US-based marketing platform provider Janrain for an undisclosed sum, providing an exit for enterprise software producer Salesforce.
Founded in 2002, Janrain has developed log-in technology that uses data collected from social networking services to authenticate users. It also collects and manages customer data to help clients gain insights and analyse their websites’ traffic.
Akamai intends to use the technology to reduce fraud on its platform and improve security for its online customers by helping to detect and manage automated bots. Janrain had raised a total of almost $79m pre-acquisition.
The company secured $27m in a 2015 series D round led by HighBar Partners that included Split Rock Partners, Epic Ventures, Emergence Capital, RPM Ventures, DFJ Frontier and Millennium Technology Value Partners.
Salesforce invested in Janrain as part of its $33m series C round in 2015. Millennium Technology Value Partners led the round, which also featured included Split Rock, EpicVentures, RPM, DFJ Frontier, Anthem Venture Partners and Emergence, which had led a $15.5m series B for the company in 2011.
DFJ Frontier had led Janrain’s $3.3m series A round in 2009, investing alongside RPM Ventures and Anthem Venture Partners.
Janrain CEO Jim Kaskade said: “Janrain has been focused on creating an innovative solution for establishing digital trust through authentication and authorisation for each individual consumer and even connected devices that interact with a digital enterprise.
“By combining the scale and intelligence of Akamai’s Intelligent Edge Platform with Janrain’s Identity Cloud, we believe we can realise the promise of delivering a more accurate and sophisticated customer identity management solution and enable trusted digital experiences that are unique for every user.”