Highlights:

  • Noetic Cyber Inc. is a cybersecurity business with headquarters in Boston and a roughly USD 20 million fundraising round.
  • InsightConnect and InsightVM, two solutions from Rapid7, have comparable characteristics.

Rapid7 acquired Noetic Cyber Inc., a startup that develops a platform to detect susceptibilities in business networks.

The firms recently made the development public. The purchase coincides with rumors that an activist investor is pressuring Rapid7 Inc. to consider a sale. The investor, Jana Partners, revealed last week that it had bought a sizeable portion of the cybersecurity company.

Listed on the Nasdaq, businesses can identify and prevent hacking attempts with the help of a suite of software tools offered by Rapid7. To identify vulnerabilities in an application, one solution, InsightAppSec, may simulate cyberattacks against the program. Additionally, Rapid7 offers solutions for associated duties like breach investigation.

In contrast, Noetic Cyber Inc. is a cybersecurity business with headquarters in Boston and a roughly USD 20 million fundraising round. Its primary offering is a platform that automatically maps out and scans a network of connected devices for vulnerabilities. Then, it ranks such vulnerabilities according to their severity.

Noetic leverages the information technology team’s existing cybersecurity technologies to gather device-level data from a company’s network. When those technologies search for attempted breaches, they gather a substantial amount of telemetry. By examining that telemetry, Noetic can compile an inventory of the workstations, servers, and other systems on the corporate network.

According to the company, its technology also finds gaps in the information gathered. For instance, the program could be able to tell whether a business isn’t actively keeping an eye on a certain server’s security settings. The harder it is for hackers to carry out cyberattacks, the fewer possible weaknesses that remain undiscovered.

Noetic customers can design automated workflows to expedite specific cybersecurity duties. The business claims that user-defined procedures can alert the IT staff when a particularly serious vulnerability is found. With Noetic’s technology, more complex tasks, including downloading security fixes, may also be automated.

InsightConnect and InsightVM, two solutions from Rapid7, have comparable characteristics. They can map out and scan the technological assets of an organization for vulnerabilities. While InsightVM is primarily concerned with on-premises hardware security, InsightConnect is intended for usage in cloud environments.

Noetic Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Ayers said, “Rapid7 customers will now be able to better prioritize exposures based on the meaningful insights from Noetic and take action to identify security gaps and reduce cyber risk.”

Rapid7 anticipates completing the Noetic acquisition by September 30, which is the last day of the current fiscal quarter. Customers will be able to access the startup’s technology this summer. The agreement is not anticipated to have a significant impact on Rapid7’s yearly recurring revenue.

The cybersecurity provider witnessed a 12% rise in sales to USD 205 million in the recent quarter compared to the same period the previous year. The business projects USD 850 million to USD 860 million in recurring revenue by the conclusion of its 2024 fiscal year.