Private Equity Firms Snapping Up ExtraHop in $900 Million Acquisition

Two private equity firms are shelling out $900 million in their acquisition of ExtraHop, the network detection and response (NDR) startup.

The buyers are Bain Capital Private Equity and Crosspoint Capital Partners. Bain Capital invests in technology companies and is one of the world’s top multi-asset alternative investment firms. Crosspoint Capital focuses on cybersecurity, privacy and infrastructure software sectors.

The ExtraHop acquisition should close this summer subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

ExtraHop Acquisition to Benefit Partners

Chris Lehman is ExtraHop’s chief revenue officer.

ExtraHop’s Chris Lehman

“ExtraHop has distinguished itself as the NDR choice for the channel,” he said. “And our partners are critical for achieving our mission. We remain committed to the channel and serving the needs of our global partners.”

ExtraHop expects to add more channel sales managers and channel sales engineers internationally, Lehman said. It also will hire additional national and regional sales managers.

ExtraHop plans to expand its awareness efforts and provide more education around the benefits of NDR, he said. It also will expand its technical differentiators to accelerate the sales cycle and time to close.

“Finally, ExtraHop plans to use the proceeds to build out its MSP program to expand both its traditional enterprise strength and into the midmarket,” Lehman said.

Strong Track Record

The private equity firms have a “strong track record” of working with later-stage growth companies, Lehman said. They capitalize on “compelling opportunities” like NDR.

“The emergence of advanced threats like software supply chain attacks and sophisticated ransomware has catalyzed a fundamental shift in cybersecurity from a prevention and protection model to active and artificial intelligence (AI)-based detection and response approach,” Lehman said. “The ExtraHop platform’s unique capabilities around detecting and remediating advanced threats, like the Sunburst software supply chain attack and sophisticated double extortion ransomware attacks like DarkSide, are exactly what attracted the attention of Bain Capital and Crosspoint.”

Doubling Down with Partners

“I want to affirm that the channel has always been foundational to ExtraHop’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and will remain so going forward,” Lehman said. “They are critical for achieving our mission to protect organizations against advanced threats.”

Moving forward, ExtraHop will work with partners to double down on its capabilities, he said. It will also capitalize on the wave of zero trust adoption, and invest in expanding its GTM efforts.

David Humphrey is a managing director at Bain Capital.

“As the events of the last few weeks make crystal clear, cybersecurity is now a mission-critical requirement in the strategy and operations of every organization on the planet, with enormous implications for financial and reputational well-being,” he said. “We believe that NDR is the next major cybersecurity segment and that ExtraHop has the best enterprise technology in the space.”