KKR Ups Investment in NetSPI with $410 Million in New Funding

Global investment firm KKR is providing $410 million in new funding to NetSPI, a provider of enterprise penetration testing and attack surface management.

KKR is increasing its investment in NetSPI with the funding. It initially invested in NetSPI in May 2021.

The funding recapitalizes NetSPI’s first institutional investor Sunstone Partners. The transaction will close by the end of 2022, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Lauren Gimmillaro is NetSPI’s vice president of business development and strategic alliances.

NetSPI’s Lauren Gimmillaro

“The investment from KKR will be used to continue innovating and expanding our technology portfolio, to expand globally, and to increase the talent at NetSPI,” she said. “We launched the NetSPI Partner Program earlier this year. So this funding will help us grow our channel team, ranging from channel development managers to those who can train partners in enablement, and much more. With this investment, we can double down on growth and expansion. And an important piece of that plan is the channel.”

Enterprises use NetSPI’s suite of offensive security solutions to uncover critical security gaps, minimize risk and reduce the likelihood of a security incident. The suite includes attack surface management, penetration testing as a service (PTaaS), and breach and attack simulation.

Partners Play Vital Role in Growth, Expansion

“Partners play a vital role in NetSPI’s growth and expansion plans for the future,” Gimmillaro said. “[They] are critical to helping us improve organizations’ security posture. And as we continue to grow our partner program, we’ll be looking at a variety of different partner options, including MSP/MSSPs, VARs, vCISOs and more. By this time next year, we want to double down on our channel operations. And finding strategic partners is critical to do so.”

This funding will ultimately allow NetSPI to double down on its core competitive advantage, she said. That’s its platform-driven, human-delivered penetration testing methodology.

“We combine human ingenuity from 400 global offensive security professionals with our innovative technology platforms – a unique combination that ensures quality, consistency, transparency, accountability and efficiency across all NetSPI assessments,” Gimmillaro said. “This will continue to be our main differentiator, especially as we expand through organic growth and M&A deals. As an extension of our team, our partners experience the same competitive advantage. In speaking with clients, they understand how valuable the human element is to offensive security today, and how seamlessly NetSPI can work within their organization.”

Next Year ‘Exciting Time’ for Partners

The next year ahead will be an “exciting time” for NetSPI channel partners, Gimmillaro said.

“For one, we’re strategically growing our channel team as well as our bench of trusted partners,” she said. “We’re also actively engaging technology partners, security, and third-party software companies to help build meaningful integrations with NetSPI to improve overall customer experiences.”

NetSPI has consistently outpaced growth forecasts. Over the past five years, the company has grown its revenue five-fold, exceeding 50% organic revenue growth in 2021, and 61% growth in 2022 to date.

Ben Pederson is a director on KKR’s technology growth team.

“NetSPI continues its trajectory of strong, and accelerating, organic growth and profitability,” he said. “And we are excited about the opportunity to continue this momentum with further investments in technology, people, geographical expansion and strategic acquisitions. Penetration testing is an increasingly important and strategic aspect to any enterprise’s security posture. And we believe NetSPI is a category defining player in the space through their best-in-class technology and PTaaS delivery model. We look forward to supporting NetSPI’s continued growth on a global scale.”