US-based cybersecurity ratings company BitSight received a $250m capital injection from credit rating provider Moody’s yesterday through a strategic partnership agreement, valuing it at $2.4bn according to TechCrunch.
BitSight provides companies with ratings of between 250 and 900 to assess their cybersecurity risk, a service likely to rise in demand amid the backdrop of escalating cyber threats such as ransomware attacks, which have cost both public and private organisations hundred of billions of dollars.
Moody’s supplied the funding through an agreement which will support the development of a software platform which will assess cyber risk. BitSight will also form a Risk Solutions Division.
Parallel to the investment, BitSight has agreed to buy VisibleRisk, a joint venture between Moody’s and venture group Team8 that rates cyber risk. It had received $25m from the two in May this year.
The investment takes BitSight’s total funding to over $400m and follows a $60m series D round in 2018 led by Warburg Pincus that also featured Singapore Telecommunications’ corporate venturing unit, Singtel Innov8, and venture capital firms Menlo Ventures and GGV Capital.
GGV Capital led the company’s $40m series C in 2016, which included Singtel Innov8, mass media groups Comcast and Liberty Global, Menlo Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Globespan Capital Partners and BitSight’s then-chief executive, Shaun McConnon.
Comcast’s corporate venturing unit, Comcast Ventures, also participated in a $23m series B round for BitSight in 2015 alongside existing backers Flybridge Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Commonwealth Capital Ventures as well as private investor Shaun McConnon.
Rob Fauber, president and CEO of Moody’s, said: “As organisations invest in cyber defence and resilience, another critical need has emerged, the ability to accurately measure and quantify cyber risk and exposure.
“Creating transparency and enabling trust is at the core of Moody’s mission – to help organisations assess complex, interconnected risks and make more informed decisions.
“BitSight is the leader in the cybersecurity ratings space and together we will help market participants across disciplines better understand, measure and manage their cyber risks and translate that to the risk of financial loss.”
