Blog by William Kilmer, Managing Partner, C5 Capital —
This week C5 Capital celebrates a new milestone of our portfolio company 4iQ as it announces its recently completed merger with Madrid-based Alto Analytics and rebranding to become Constella Intelligence, a provider of digital risk protection solutions and services.
The formation of Constella is a significant step as organizations seek to protect themselves and the value of their underlying digital assets, including customer data, employee information, financial data, which have been under increased attack. Hackers are focused on stealing valuable data to sell on the deep and dark web and exploiting their attacks through ransomware attacks. Ransomware incidents increased by 40% in Q3 2020 alone, and recent estimates put ransomware damages at $20 billion in 2021.
At stake from these digital asset attacks is the massive shift to digital transformation occurring on a global scale. As organizations strive to access what the World Economic Forum reports as a $100 trillion digital dividend, they risk data breaches, leaks of personal information, as well as attacks on their brands, reputation, executive teams, and more.
Recognition of these threats drives the growing need for Cyber intelligence and digital risk protection, creating a market that will reach $17 billion by 2025. Use cases are expansive as organizations seek to protect themselves from threats to digital assets and understand threats appearing through digital channels.
When we invested in 4iQ, we did so because of their apparent advantages in proprietary analytics, broad data sets, access to the deep and dark web, and broad geographic coverage. With these capabilities, 4iQ brought to the table an unparalleled insight into data breaches and a deep understanding of TTPs: the techniques, tactics, and practices of hackers as well as their motives and insight into preventative and proactive measures counter them.
With the merger with Madrid-based Alto Analytics complete, the newly rebranded Constella Intelligence adds deep human analyst expertise, social and surface web data, and exceptional analytics to its portfolio as well as significant commercial and government customers in Europe and South America.
As a company, Constella has over 100 billion attributes and 45 billion curated identity records spanning 125 countries and 53 languages. Now, with an expert analyst team, Constella will help organizations bridge the gap to anticipate digital risks and safeguard their critical business interests.
We want to extend our congratulations Kailash Ambwani, the new Constella CEO, and Alex Romero, the former CEO of Alto Analytics and new COO of the combined company. Our hats off to the entire Constella team for their work creating the next great digital risk protection company.
Currently, fewer than 10% of large enterprises use commercial threat intelligence services. By 2022, this figure is expected to jump to 20%. Organizations are becoming more aware of the threats they face, and they lack the internal resources to understand, assess, and manage them.
We look forward to supporting the Constella team as they lead the way in protecting organizations worldwide.