Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Votiro Raises $10 Million Ahead of IPO in Australia
IsraelDefense
| 27/03/2017
Photo: AP
Israeli cybersecurity company Votiro Cybersec has announced its plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to the Australian Financial Review. Last week, it has also revealed that the Israeli company CyberGym was embarking on an IPO roadshow at the end of March.
Votiro has also started a capital raising ahead of its listing later this year, targeting investors in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore for a $10.1 million capital injection. Alternative investment fund Redfield Asset Management has already committed $2.93 million to the raise and has underwritten the remaining $7.17 million.
Votiro's CEO Itay Glick said a local listing would help the company expand across the Asia Pacific region. "We won't be Israeli-headquartered for very long as we want to move some of our operations to Australia as a base to expand into the APAC region. To do that, it is very clear that you need to list, because the Australian market is not like the US market where it's mostly VC-based," he said. "You can also do bigger things like purchase companies with the strength of the ASX."
The other major consideration for the business in expanding to Australia was the research and development tax incentives and the support of both the NSW and Victorian governments. "It's almost even between Sydney and Melbourne. It's really interesting to see both states vying for new companies," Mr. Glick said. "When we were in San Francisco recently, we went to an Austrade event and there were representatives from both states there who were gunning for companies to come to their states."
Unlike most cybersecurity companies that protect businesses and individuals against known threats, Votiro created what is known as content disarm and reconstruction technology, which prevents unknown and "Zero-Day" exploits from penetrating a system.
Launched in 2010, Votiro analyzes all email attachments and "cleanses" them, thereby seeking to prevent threats from entering a company's email server.
The company's founders, Itay Glick and Aviv Grafi, have both served in the elite intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and spent more than 10 years working in information security and telecommunications (in the case of Mr. Grafi).
"We saw that it was very easy to attack organizations because all of them were using signature-based detection technologies which were and still are unable to detect undisclosed and Zero-Day threats," Mr. Glick said.
"The amount of discovered Zero-Day threats in 2015 was roughly 54 (according to security firm Symantec), meaning every week there was a new Zero-Day threat. Every week an attacker can choose an exploit, send it to you, and then they're in. That's how easy it is to use those Zero-Day threats."
Votiro's latest capital raising follows a $US4 million financing round in May last year, which was also led by Redfield.
The company is initially recruiting four people to join its R&D team in Australia, but it is still deciding between Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr. Glick also expects the business to grow strongly here because of the recent introduction of the mandatory data breach reporting laws, and in Asia, the Japanese government has begun offering favorable financial benefits to businesses that invest heavily in cybersecurity.
"Mandatory data breach disclosure is definitely a catalyst for organizations to assess their cybersecurity solutions. And then there is the fear factor – no one wants to be the next one to be hacked," he said.
Photo: AP
Israeli cybersecurity company Votiro Cybersec has announced its plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to the Australian Financial Review. Last week, it has also revealed that the Israeli company CyberGym was embarking on an IPO roadshow at the end of March.
Votiro has also started a capital raising ahead of its listing later this year, targeting investors in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore for a $10.1 million capital injection. Alternative investment fund Redfield Asset Management has already committed $2.93 million to the raise and has underwritten the remaining $7.17 million.
Votiro's CEO Itay Glick said a local listing would help the company expand across the Asia Pacific region. "We won't be Israeli-headquartered for very long as we want to move some of our operations to Australia as a base to expand into the APAC region. To do that, it is very clear that you need to list, because the Australian market is not like the US market where it's mostly VC-based," he said. "You can also do bigger things like purchase companies with the strength of the ASX."
The other major consideration for the business in expanding to Australia was the research and development tax incentives and the support of both the NSW and Victorian governments. "It's almost even between Sydney and Melbourne. It's really interesting to see both states vying for new companies," Mr. Glick said. "When we were in San Francisco recently, we went to an Austrade event and there were representatives from both states there who were gunning for companies to come to their states."
Unlike most cybersecurity companies that protect businesses and individuals against known threats, Votiro created what is known as content disarm and reconstruction technology, which prevents unknown and "Zero-Day" exploits from penetrating a system.
Launched in 2010, Votiro analyzes all email attachments and "cleanses" them, thereby seeking to prevent threats from entering a company's email server.
The company's founders, Itay Glick and Aviv Grafi, have both served in the elite intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and spent more than 10 years working in information security and telecommunications (in the case of Mr. Grafi).
"We saw that it was very easy to attack organizations because all of them were using signature-based detection technologies which were and still are unable to detect undisclosed and Zero-Day threats," Mr. Glick said.
"The amount of discovered Zero-Day threats in 2015 was roughly 54 (according to security firm Symantec), meaning every week there was a new Zero-Day threat. Every week an attacker can choose an exploit, send it to you, and then they're in. That's how easy it is to use those Zero-Day threats."
Votiro's latest capital raising follows a $US4 million financing round in May last year, which was also led by Redfield.
The company is initially recruiting four people to join its R&D team in Australia, but it is still deciding between Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr. Glick also expects the business to grow strongly here because of the recent introduction of the mandatory data breach reporting laws, and in Asia, the Japanese government has begun offering favorable financial benefits to businesses that invest heavily in cybersecurity.
"Mandatory data breach disclosure is definitely a catalyst for organizations to assess their cybersecurity solutions. And then there is the fear factor – no one wants to be the next one to be hacked," he said.
