Steven Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital Acquiring Zimperium for $525 Million

Zimperium, the mobile security platform for enterprises, is being acquired by private equity firm Liberty Strategic Capital for $525 million.

Liberty Strategic Capital is led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. He will chair Zimperium’s board of directors.

The investment will allow Zimperium to continue accelerating its growth, both organically and via strategic acquisitions. SoftBank, a Zimperium investor since 2017, will continue as a minority owner.

Zimperium provides mobile device and app security, offering real-time, on-device protection against both known and unknown threats. Zimperium’s z9 machine learning (ML)-based engine protects mobile devices from device, network, phishing and application attacks.

The acquisition should close in the second quarter.

New Resources, Enablement for Partners

Ed Carter is Zimperium’s chief revenue officer.

Zimperium’s Ed Carter

“The Liberty Strategic Capital investment will be used to fund growth, including additional channel resources, enablement opportunities and marketing investments,” he said. “By enabling Zimperium to further enhance its already differentiated solutions through both organic development and via acquisitions, the funding will provide even more competitive advantage to both Zimperium, and our reseller and distribution partners. Additionally, Zimperium will be able to invest in service provider programs to support new partner types like MSSPs and SIs in their journey to building services around mobile DevSecOps.”

The number of mobile devices globally should reach 18.2 billion by 2025, more than double the number of people in the world. As the number of mobile devices expands, so does the cybersecurity threat to people, organizations and governments.

Zimperium’s 2022 Global Mobile Threat Report recently revealed nearly one in four mobile endpoints encountered malicious applications last year. Attack vectors for compromising mobile devices expanded as well, with Zimperium’s research showing 75% of phishing sites discovered last year specifically targeted mobile devices.

Mobile the ‘New Front Line’ for Cybersecurity

“It’s clear that mobile is the new front line for cybersecurity,” Mnuchin said. “We all need to increase our focus on the protection of mobile devices and applications. Liberty Strategic Capital is investing in Zimperium because they’ve shown that they can lead the way in this multibillion-dollar market. As the use of mobile devices and the cyber threats against them proliferate, we believe Zimperium has positioned itself as the leader in securing mobile endpoints and applications. We’re excited to work with Zimperium as they lead in this critical and fast-growing market to strengthen mobile security worldwide.”

Zimperium delivered record growth and momentum in 2021, including a 53% increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

“Zimperium is committed to driving all revenue through our partners and is actively investing in driving growth,” Carter said. “Partners are critical to our growth, in both mobile endpoint and application security.”