Recorded Future Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

Recorded Future was acquired by Mastercard for $2.6B in September 2024, a 8.8x multiple on $300M of revenue.

Recorded Future acquisition price

$2.6B

Acquired by Mastercard · Sep 2024

Recorded Future revenue at acquisition

$300M

Last twelve months · Sep 2024

Recorded Future revenue multiple at acquisition

8.8x

EV/Revenue · Sep 2024

Cumulative funding Recorded Future raised

$70M

across 4 funding rounds

Recorded Future Overview

About Recorded Future

Recorded Future is a cybersecurity company that provides threat intelligence software. It was founded in 2009 by Christopher Ahlberg and Staffan Truve and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Its intelligence platform collects data from open, technical and dark web sources and organises it in a graph that security teams use to assess threats. Products address security operations, brand and digital risk protection, third-party risk, vulnerability and attack surface management, identity exposure and payment fraud. Customers are enterprises and government agencies, who buy subscriptions to the platform and its data feeds. The company has offices in the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan. It has grown partly through acquisitions of smaller security data businesses, and it operates as a subsidiary of Mastercard.


Founded

2009

HQ

United StatesBoston, MA

Status

Acquired

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Subscription

Revenue

$250M (Mar 2022)

Valuation

$2.6B (acquired Sep 2024)

Recorded Future Acquisition

Recorded Future was acquired by Mastercard for $2.6B on 12 September 2024.

The acquisition price implies a 8.8x revenue multiple on $300M of revenue.

Before the acquisition Recorded Future had raised $70M across 4 funding rounds.

Mastercard agreed to acquire Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, for $2.65 billion in September 2024. The price was described as a significant premium to the $780 million valuation at which Insight Partners bought the company in 2019. Reports put the price at roughly 6.5 to 7.8 times annual revenue. Mastercard said the acquisition would strengthen its cybersecurity capabilities and help protect banks, merchants and consumers from fraud and cyber threats by combining Recorded Future's intelligence with its own security and payments data. Recorded Future sells the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud, a platform that gathers and analyses data on threat actors, infrastructure and vulnerabilities for enterprise and government customers. The company had about $300 million in annual revenue and roughly 1,000 employees at the time of the deal, and its recurring revenue had passed $250 million in 2022. It was previously owned by Insight Partners.

Recorded Future acquisition details
AcquirerDateTypePriceEV/Revenue
12 Sep 2024Strategic M&A$2.6B8.8x

Sources: paymentsdive.com, cybersecuritydive.com

Recorded Future Revenue

Recorded Future's latest recorded revenue is $250M, as of its undisclosed-stage round in March 2022.

Recorded Future revenue by funding round

Recorded Future revenue and valuation multiple by funding round
DateRevenue *Stage
Mar 2022$250MUndisclosed stage

* Revenue (or ARR) figures are the values recorded alongside each funding round. Typically run-rate revenue at the time of the deal, or a reported LTM (last 12 months) revenue.

Recorded Future Funding History

Recorded Future has raised a total of $70M across 4 funding rounds.

Recorded Future's first fundraising round was a $12M Series C in May 2012. The most recent completed round was a $21M undisclosed-stage round in March 2022.

Recorded Future funding rounds

Recorded Future funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedDeal Summary
Mar 2022Undisclosed stage-$21MRecorded Future, a threat intelligence company headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, took a funding round of about $21 million in early 2022. The investors in the round were not disclosed. The company was founded in 2009 and provides security intelligence that gives enterprises real-time visibility into cyber threats. Insight Partners had taken a controlling interest in the business in 2019 in a deal valuing it at more than $780 million, and the company was later acquired by Mastercard in 2024.
Oct 2017Series EInsight Partners (lead)$25MInsight Venture Partners led a USD 25 million Series E round in Recorded Future, announced on October 31, 2017. Recorded Future said the proceeds would support geographical expansion, product development and continued investment in machine learning-based threat intelligence and research. The round also included security companies from Insight's portfolio. Earlier investors in the company included Balderton Capital, GV, In-Q-Tel and IA Ventures, which had put in more than USD 30 million before this round. Recorded Future is a threat intelligence company, headquartered in the United States, whose platform continuously crawls the surface, deep and dark web and applies machine learning to deliver actionable intelligence on cyber threats to security teams. Its chief executive, Christopher Ahlberg, described annual revenue in the mid-eight figures with roughly 100 percent year-over-year growth at the time of the round.
Apr 2015Series DREV (lead); Accomplice; Balderton Capital; GV; MassMutual Ventures; IA Ventures; IQT$12MRecorded Future raised $12 million in its Series D funding round on April 16, 2015, led by REV (Reed Elsevier Ventures) with participation from MassMutual Ventures and existing investors including Google Ventures (GV), In-Q-Tel (IQT), IA Ventures, Balderton Capital, and others. The funding supported expansion in the US, UK, and Sweden, following over 100% bookings growth in 2014 and adoption by top financial institutions, technology companies, cybersecurity firms, MSSPs, and government agencies. The company's Web Intelligence Engine analyzes billions of web data sets to detect emerging cyberattack patterns, serving enterprise customers including four of the top five companies worldwide. Kevin Brown from REV joined the board, highlighting the company's differentiation in the threat intelligence market.
May 2012Series CBalderton Capital; GV$12MRecorded Future raised a USD 12 million Series C round from Balderton Capital and Google Ventures, announced in May 2012. The round brought the total capital raised by the company to about USD 20 million. Earlier backers included In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the CIA, IA Ventures, Atlas Venture and Google Ventures. Balderton partner Bernard Liautaud, the former chief executive of Business Objects, joined the board as part of the investment. Recorded Future was coming out of semi-stealth mode at the time, led by co-founder and chief executive Christopher Ahlberg. The company pulls data from news sites, blogs, trade publications, government sources and financial databases across the web, then analyses and visualises it to help customers anticipate events. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in the Boston area.

Who has invested in Recorded Future?

8 investors have backed Recorded Future across its funding rounds, including GV, Balderton Capital, Insight Partners, Accomplice, IQT and MassMutual Ventures.

Lead investors include Insight Partners and REV.


Recorded Future Investors

Investors in Recorded Future by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
Balderton CapitalUnited KingdomLondon2ParticipantMay 2012
GVUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA2ParticipantMay 2012
AccompliceUnited StatesBoston, MA1ParticipantApr 2015
REVUnited KingdomLondon1LeadApr 2015
MassMutual VenturesUnited StatesSingapore1ParticipantApr 2015
IA VenturesUnited StatesNew York1ParticipantApr 2015

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Acquisitions by Recorded Future

Recorded Future has acquired 3 companies to date.

Last acquisition by Recorded Future was on July 8th 2022. Recorded Future acquired Hatching for undisclosed valuation.


Latest Acquisitions by Recorded Future

Hatching
SecurityTrails
Gemini Advisory
Description
Hatching is a cybersecurity firm offering malware sandboxing through its Hatching Triage platform. Enterprise security teams and service providers use the unlimited, free tool at tria.ge to analyze threats and protect end-users. The solution processes malware samples with state-of-the-art detonation environments.
SecurityTrails is a data intelligence platform aggregating historical and current domain and IP information for threat hunting and risk assessment. The company provides API access to internet asset data for attack surface management and third-party monitoring. Used by Fortune 500 firms, security vendors, and governments, its Denver-based infrastructure supports rapid queries for shadow IT discovery.
Gemini Advisory is a cybersecurity intelligence firm monitoring the dark web for cyber threats, data breaches, and ransomware activities. The company retrieves stolen data, conducts brand protection, and negotiates extortion payments for clients including financial institutions and governments. Acquired by Mandiant in 2021, Gemini operates from offices in the U.S. and Europe.
HQ CountryNetherlandsUnited StatesUnited States
HQ City
Amsterdam
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
Deal Date8 Jul 20224 Jan 202216 Mar 2021
Valuationundisclosed$65M$52M
EV/Revenue
EV/EBITDA

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Recorded Future Competitors

Recorded Future competitors include listed companies like CommVault Systems and QiAnXin, and private ones like Devo, SpyCloud, JumpCloud and Axonius.

Public and private companies comparable to Recorded Future
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
DevoUnited StatesUnited StatesPrivate--$2B-
SpyCloudUnited StatesAustin, TXPrivate--$1.6B-
CommVault SystemsUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$1.2B$84M$6.5B5.2x
JumpCloudUnited StatesLouisville, KYPrivate$56M-$2.6B46.9x
QiAnXinChinaChinaPublicly listed$659M($147M)$2.6B4.3x
AxoniusUnited StatesNew York City, NYPrivate$100M-$2.6B26.0x

Recorded Future Public Comps

Recorded Future is no longer listed, but its public comps include QiAnXin, Venustech Group, Teradata, Xunce Technology, NetScout Systems, Cellebrite, Dameng Database, Business-intelligence, AvePoint and A10 Networks.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
QiAnXin$659M($147M)4.3x4.3x(19.2x)(45.6x)
Venustech Group$351M($60M)6.9x6.2x(40.3x)200.9x
Teradata$1.7B$285M1.5x1.6x9.0x5.5x
Xunce Technology$193M($16M)11.7x6.6x(144.2x)135.0x
NetScout Systems$859M$163M2.1x2.0x11.1x7.5x
Cellebrite$476M$79M5.7x5.0x34.2x17.9x
Dameng Database$196M$84M14.1x11.3x32.6x27.8x
Business-intelligence$391M$54M6.8x6.1x48.7x-

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Common questions about Recorded Future

When was Recorded Future founded?Recorded Future was founded in 2009.
Where is Recorded Future headquartered?Recorded Future is headquartered in Boston, MA, United States.
Is Recorded Future publicly listed?No, Recorded Future was acquired by Mastercard in September 2024.
Who acquired Recorded Future?Recorded Future was acquired by Mastercard in September 2024.
How much was Recorded Future acquired for?Recorded Future was acquired for $2.6B in September 2024, a 8.8x revenue multiple.
How much funding has Recorded Future raised?Recorded Future has raised $70M across 4 funding rounds.
What was Recorded Future's last funding round?Recorded Future's last funding round was a $21M undisclosed-stage round in March 2022.
Who are Recorded Future's investors?Recorded Future's investors include Balderton Capital, GV, Accomplice, REV, MassMutual Ventures, IA Ventures, Insight Partners and IQT.
What is Recorded Future's revenue?Recorded Future's latest recorded revenue is $250M (March 2022).
Which companies are comparable to Recorded Future?Companies comparable to Recorded Future include Devo, SpyCloud, CommVault Systems, JumpCloud, QiAnXin and Axonius.
How many companies has Recorded Future acquired?Recorded Future has acquired 3 companies, including Hatching, SecurityTrails and Gemini Advisory.
What was the largest acquisition by Recorded Future?The $65M acquisition of SecurityTrails in January 2022 is the largest acquisition Recorded Future has made to date.

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