Rapid7 Buys Kubernetes Security Startup Alcide For $50M

Alcide’s cloud workload protection platform provides visibility and governance, container runtime and network monitoring, and can also detect, audit and investigate known and unknown security threats.

Rapid7 has purchased early stage Kubernetes security vendor Alcide to help facilitate the rapid deployment of applications while also protecting cloud environments from malicious attacks.

The Boston-based cybersecurity company said Alcide’s cloud workload protection platform provides broad real-time visibility and governance, container runtime and network monitoring. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company’s technology can also detect, audit and investigate known and unknown security threats, according to Rapid7.

“We are thrilled to welcome Alcide to Rapid7,” Rapid7 Chairman and CEO Corey Thomas said in a statement. “The technical talent within Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem is unparalleled, and we look forward to working together with the Alcide team to provide organizations with comprehensive cloud security that drives business growth and innovation.”

[Related: Rapid7 To Buy Cloud Security Startup DivvyCloud For $145M]

The $50 million acquisition of Alcide has already closed and is not expected to have a material impact to Rapid7’s financial results for the 2021 calendar year. Rapid7’s stock is up $2.30 (2.65 percent) to $89.12 per share in trading shortly after the market opened Monday morning.

Alcide was founded in 2016, employs 34 people and has raised $12.3 million in four rounds of outside funding, according to LinkedIn and Crunchbase. The company most recently closed a $7 million Series A round in November 2018 led by venture capital fund CE Ventures.

“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new journey for Alcide,” Alcide CEO Amir Ofek said in a statement. “We are excited to join Rapid7 not only because of our shared commitment to providing customers with innovative and accessible cloud security solutions, but this also gives us an opportunity to bring our market-leading Kubernetes security platform to a broader set of customers.”

Bringing together Alcide’s cloud workload protection platform and Rapid7’s cloud security posture management and cloud infrastructure entitlement management offerings will allow customers to better manage risk and compliance across their entire cloud environment, according to Brian Johnson, Rapid7’s senior vice president of cloud security.

“Kubernetes is quickly becoming the preferred platform for automating deployment, scaling and managing containerized applications,” Johnson said in a statement. “In order to take full advantage of the speed and innovation Kubernetes can unlock for an organization, security needs to be tightly integrated without getting in the way.”

There has been a shift in perception in the cloud security market, Johnson said, with cloud security teams no longer viewed as a cost center or operational roadblock. Instead, Johnson said these teams have earned their seat at the table as a critical investment essential to driving business forward.

“With Alcide, we can enable organizations to continuously secure and protect their growing Kubernetes deployments while giving developers the freedom to rapidly develop and deliver applications,” Johnson said.

Alcide decided two and a half years ago to focus solely on Kubernetes security and the move has paid off, with the share of Cloud Native Computing Foundation survey respondents having Kubernetes in production increasing from 58 percent two years ago to 83 percent today, Ofek said. Companies like Snowflake and Grubhub rely on Alcide to secure their Kubernetes infrastructure, he said.

Despite COVID-19, Ofek said Alcide has grown rapidly and significantly boosted its platform, delivering 20 major releases. The company also added its first open-source toolset for early scanning of Kubernetes policy configurations to identify any security gaps, according to Ofek. Alcide met Rapid7 at KubeCon San Diego just over a year ago, and Ofek said there’s great culture and vision alignment between the teams.

“In joining Rapid7, we will be able to bring to the market a far more robust and competitive offering, accelerate our innovation, and gain a far greater scale globally than we would be able to achieve as a startup,” Ofek said in a blog post. “As part of Rapid7, we will be able to share our SaaS and Kubernetes expertise and build on its leadership in the CSPM space.”

The Alcide deal comes just over nine months after Rapid7 bought DivvyCloud for $145 million to help customers protect cloud and container environments from misconfigurations, policy violations, external and internal threats, and identity and access management challenges. The DivvyCloud offering combines deep visibility with automated prevention and real-time remediation of risk, according to Rapid7.