On Wednesday, UK-based telecoms group British Telecoms Group (BT) announced that it has acquired a multi-million stake in Safe Security, a cyber risk management firm based in California. With this, the telecoms giant plans to delve into and grow its business in cybersecurity.
The development is British Telecoms’ first major third-party investment in cybersecurity since 2006, making the company the largest investor in Safe Security’s latest funding round.
Safe Security is a cyber risk management firm that helps businesses and governments to combat cyber risks in real-time. With how important the internet has become, cybersecurity has become a necessity for companies and governments. Safe Security provides cybersecurity by aggregating signals from people, processes, and technology. It then quantifies the risk as a score and dollar value on its SAFE platform.
According to British Telecoms’ Chief Executive Officer Philip Jansen, cybersecurity is the most important option in the scale of preference for businesses and governments battling increasing levels of attack.
In a statement confirming the investment in Safe Security, Phillip Jansen said that “adding SAFE to BT’s proactive, predictive security services will give customers an enhanced view of their threat level, and rapidly pinpoint specific actions needed to strengthen their defenses.”
“Already one of the world’s leading providers in a highly fragmented security market, this investment is a clear sign of BT’s ambition to grow further”, he added.
Known formerly as Lucideus, Safe Security started in IIT Bombay in 2010. It was started by Saket Modi along with Vidit Baxi and Rahul Tyagi. It wasn’t until 2013 that Safe Security launched it’d enterprise Cyber Security services. The company’s first client was Tata Sky and presently, its client ranges across Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), consumer goods, consumer internet, manufacturing, etc.
Safe security expanded its operations to the US after a Series A funding round by John T. Chambers, former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems. Safe Security’s latest funding round is more than double the value of Series A, a source told Reuters.
BT will be granted exclusive rights to use and sell SAFE to businesses part of the investment, and public sector bodies in the UK, and will incorporate the platform within its wider global portfolio, Safe Security mentioned.
“By aligning BT’s global reach and capabilities with SAFE’s ability to provide real-time visibility on cyber risk posture, we are going to fundamentally change how cybersecurity is measured and managed across the globe,” Safe Security co-founder and chief executive Saket Modi said while emphasizing that Safe Security was excited to be working with a proven security leader as British Telecoms.
