UCD spinout company Logentries bought for almost €60m
University College Dublin spinout company Logentries has been bought by US based security data and analytics software firm Rapid7 in a deal worth almost €60 million.
Logentries makes cloud-based log management software for collecting and analysing huge quantities of log event data and making that data easily accessible to improve IT and business operations.
It was co-founded in 2010 by Dr Viliam Holub and Dr Trevor Parsons as a spin-out company from UCD’s Performance Engineering Laboratory in UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics.
The deal will see most of Logentries 70 staff, including the engineering and development staff based in Dublin, join Rapid7.
Rapid7 says it will continue to build and develop the presence in Ireland.
Logentries had previously raised $11.1m in funding from investors including Polaris Partners, Floodgate, Frontline Ventures, RRE Ventures and Enterprise Ireland.
The deal, worth $68m, is made up of a mix of cash and equity.
39 Logentries staff have been granted almost a million shares in Rapid7 as part of the acquisition.
Headquartered in Boston, Logentries has 3,000 customers in over 65 countries.
“Rapid7’s leading position in the security data and analytics market gives us the opportunity to reach an evolving and expanding market that is looking for lower cost access to machine data, along with advanced security data collection and analytics,” Logentries CEO Andrew Burton said in a statement.
Welcoming the news, UCD Vice-President for Research, Orla Feely said, “Logentries, which emerged from UCD’s research focus on ‘big data’ and the fostering of partnerships by the University with industry, is an excellent example of the quality of the companies emerging from University College Dublin.
