Baltimore-based FourV Systems acquired

FourV Systems, a Baltimore-based startup which developed tools to make it easier for executives without a tech background to understand their company’s IT security, was acquired by Opaq Networks, the companies announced this week.
Herndon, Va.–based Opaq Networks is looking to add FourV’s capabilities to its offering that seeks to bring automated cybersecurity tools to midsize companies. The company offers security tools, as well as a way to manage policies.
With FourV’s technology, which was marketed as Greyspark, the company adds an “automated way to detect and report both on risk posture as well as where you stand on compliance and regulatory framework,” said Opaq Networks Chief Strategy Officer Ken Ammon.
With the deal, FourV’s full team is joining Opaq Networks.
“One of the things we valued very highly in the acquisition was the tam and we’re in a high growth mode ourselves,” Ammon said. “As it turns out there was a really good alignment not just for the product but for the team members in many of the open slots that we had forecast this year.”
The team likely won’t continue to work out of downtown offices above Spark Baltimore, but they are exploring potential for another Baltimore location, Ammon said.
As FourV CEO Derek Gabbard previously told us, the technology that underlies Greyspark was first developed within Syracuse Research Corporation. The government contractor created it for leaders who wanted an easier way to understand security risk. FourV reached an agreement with the venture arm of SRC that included funding and IP to develop the product. The team initially intended to develop a more general big data analytics platform, but ended up shifting to the cyber risk platform after seeing interest in that from potential clients.
The startup’s leaders have spoken up about potential cyber threats and building a company in Baltimore.
“OPAQ’s platform is built to address a market that we at FourV also believed is both underserved and critically important – the midsize enterprise,” Gabbard, who prior to FourV served as CEO of Lookingglass, wrote in a blog post this week. “These companies often find challenges in applying the personnel and financial resources needed to acquire, deploy, and manage the type of security infrastructure required to properly fend off today’s advanced threats.”
Ammon said one-year-old Opaq is in “go-to market mode” this year, and is pursuing a 100-percent channel partner strategy. The company also made a pair of acquisitions last year.
With this acquisition, the GreySpark name is likely to remain, but FourV Systems will not, Ammon said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.