PhishMe acquired by private equity firms, changes name to Cofense

Leesburg, Va.–based cybersecurity startup PhishMe announced on Monday that it has been acquired by a private equity consortium, and is changing its name to Cofense.

Breaking news: @PhishMe has been acquired and rebranded as #Cofense in a deal valuing the company at $400M – learn more about this exciting announcement on https://t.co/xXMwq8s8Wx pic.twitter.com/vmioqZI0Ol

— Cofense (@Cofense) February 26, 2018

The deal values the company at $400 million, according to a news release.

Fortune broke the news of the acquisition on Monday morning. The financial news magazine reports that the company is being acquired by Pamplona Capital Management and BlackRock.

With the new ownership and name, cofounder and CEO Rohyt Belani will remain at the helm of the seven-year-old company. The company’s initial product was designed to help businesses raise awareness about and prevent phishing attacks among employees.

In a blog post, CTO Aaron Higbee wrote that the company is looking to sync up its branding with what it does now.

“With our new name and branding, we’re ready to blow things out,” Higbee wrote. “The Cofense brand speaks to how we’ve expanded our approach. Cofense delivers collective, complete phishing defense. We’ve been moving in this direction for years, with solutions that accelerate incident response, fueled by employee-sourced phishing-attack intelligence.”

The deal provides financial backing to expand, writes Higbee. Fortune notes that it’s one of a number of cybersecurity firms to be purchased by private equity firms in recent years.