Check Point acquiring Avanan for $300 million, its biggest purchase in over a decade

Israeli cybersecurity powerhouse Check Point announced on Monday that it is acquiring Israeli startup Avanan. Gil Shwed's company didn't announce the price of the purchase, but according to estimations, Check Point will pay around $300 million for the cloud-email security vendor. Avanan has developed a patented application-programming interface (API) solution to stop email threats before they arrive in the inbox. This sector has been especially hot in recent times due to the many hacks that originate via email phishing attacks.

The acquisition is especially significant for Check Point, which isn't known to be a fan of pricy purchases. The last time Check Point spent more money on buying a company was back in 2007 when it bought PointSec for around $500 million. Over recent years Check Point made an effort to bolster its cloud offering with several acquisitions that were all under $100 million.

With over 100 employees, 30 in Israel and the rest in the U.S., Avanan protects more than 5,000 customers and over 2.5 million inboxes. The solution deploys in minutes like an app and is configured in a few clicks. Avanan was founded by CEO Gil Freidrich, CTO Avi Zelovich, VP Product Roy Rotem and chief privacy officer Michael Landewe. The company has raised $40 million to date, including from Magma VC and StageOne Ventures.

“Avanan’s journey to reinvent email security is starting a whole new chapter. By merging with Check Point Software, we are combining Avanan’s best in class A.I. that catches the sophisticated email-borne attacks everyone else misses, with Check Point Software’s unparalleled security capabilities and threat intelligence,” said Gil Friedrich, CEO and co-founder of Avanan. “With Check Point Software’s global organization, we plan to bring our joint solution to all organizations, of all sizes and geographies, to anyone that needs better security for their email and collaboration suite.”

“More and more businesses are moving to cloud-email platforms and with email becoming a major channel to launch devastating cyber-attacks, this acquisition represents a huge potential as organizations are looking for a new approach to email and collaboration suite security,” said Dr. Dorit Dor, Check Point’s Chief Product Officer. “By integrating Avanan into Check Point Infinity, organizations will be able to modernize legacy solutions with email security as-a-service and protect cloud email and collaboration suites from the most sophisticated attacks. We’ve been using the Avanan technology as an OEM for the last 3 years and I am confident that with this new addition, customers will enjoy the best email security with the best cyber security capabilities.”