Venture firm C5 Capital has agreed to sell online fraud prevention company Shape Security to F5 Network in a $1bn deal.
The sale comes just months after C5 Capital led the $51m funding round of Shape Security, a round which put its company valuation to $1bn. Other investors in the round included Kleiner Perkins, HPE Growth, Norwest Ventures Partners, Focus Ventures, JetBlue Technology Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, and EPIC Ventures.
F5 Networks is a digital services provider offering a range of tools to banking companies for app security, app development, multi-cloud management and more. With the acquisition of Shape Security, it will bolster its end-to-end application protection.
The new capabilities will enable F5 to double the size of its addressable market, it claims.
Shape Security leverages AI technology to automate fraud detection and differentiate between human and automated traffic. The company can protect a business from credential stuffing, fake accounts, credit card application fraud, gift card cracking, scrapping and aggregator threats.
C5 Capital Managing Partner Andre Pienaar said, “We were delighted to lead the funding round in Shape and its deal with F5 shows C5’s ability to identify valuable investment opportunities ahead of others. The combination of F5 and Shape will define the future of combatting botnet fraud and is an excellent deal for both businesses.
“C5 built a reputation to support fast growing technology companies in our niche sectors expand successfully globally. C5 enters 2020 with an experienced team, a portfolio of fast-growing companies and a strong deal flow pipeline of new investments.”
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