Clearwater tech company KnowBe4 buys British AI firm

KnowBe4, the Clearwater-based cybersecurity company that sold to a Texas private equity firm for $4.6 billion in 2022, has agreed to buy an English company specializing in adaptive and integrated cloud email security.

Both KnowBe4 and Egress, the company being bought, announced the sale Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the coming months.

KnowBe4 says in its statement that it has been working with Egress for about a year and that the company has developed AI-enabled email security tools “with adaptive learning capabilities to help prevent, protect and defend organizations against sophisticated email cybersecurity threats.”

By buying it, KnowBe4 can now “deliver a single platform that aggregates threat intelligence dynamically, offering AI-based email security and training that is automatically tailored relative to risk.”

KnowBe4 was founded in 2010 by IT and data security specialist Stu Sjouwerman and went public less than two years before selling itself to Vista Equity Partners in late 2022 for $4.6 billion.

KnowBe4 provides services that combat phishing, ransomware, malware, CEO fraud and other cyberattacks. Its platform, according to a news release at the time of the sale, is used by more than 52,000 organizations around the globe.

Before it went private, the company reported $246.3 million in gross revenue in 2021, up from $174.3 million in 2020, an increase of nearly 41%.

Earlier this year, KnowBe4 introduced its own AI platform, Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents, which it says uses AI to improve efficacy and speed.

“The future of security is personalized AI-driven controls and real-time coaching,” says Sjouwerman, the company’s CEO, in the statement.

“By providing a single platform from KnowBe4 and Egress, our customers will benefit from differentiated aggregate threat detection to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats and foster a strong security culture.”