Edinburgh’s Zonefox bought by US player

Edinburgh-based cyber security firm Zonefox has been snapped up by a US business.

It has been sold by its shareholders – who include Scottish business angel investment syndicates Archangels and Tricap, the Scottish Investment Bank and Napier University – to Californian cybersecurity Fortinet.

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, will see the Zonefox name eventually absorbed into Fortinet. The latter will take on the Scottish firm’s entire 25 staff. The spin-out from Napier University was set up in 2010, and is focused on security systems that tackle insider threats. Its customers include healthcare firm Craneware, Zenith Bank, Rockstar Games, Bede Gaming, Pinsent Masons and Virgin Care.

Zonefox chief executive Jamie Graves said the transaction “will allow us to extend our reach to a broad spectrum of Fortinet and third-party solutions to solve customers’ most difficult challenges in network security”.

Niki Mckenzie,

investment director at Archangels, deemed Zonefox a Scottish technology success story globally, adding that the deal news “signals the next chapter in the Zonefox story, enabling the team to provide protection and support to an even wider range of organisations.

And Ken Xie, chief executive officer at Fortinet, said the tieup means the US business is “well-positioned” to offer “an integrated approach to defend against insider threats, eliminate network blind spots and protect today’s expanding attack surface with automation and machine learning”. 0 Jamie Graves hailed the potential of the transaction