- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
Marcin Kleczynski didn’t want the money.
It was February 2013, and Mr. Kleczynski, the chief executive of an antivirus start-up called Malwarebytes, had received a cold call from a venture capitalist hoping to discuss a possible investment. But Malwarebytes, which started in 2008, was already making enough profit to sustain itself.
Now, a little more than a year later, Mr. Kleczynski has accepted the check. Malwarebytes announced on Thursday a $30 million investment from Highland Capital Partners, the same firm that tried to get in the door in 2013. It is the first outside capital Malwarebytes has raised.
The investment shows investors’ continued hunger for antivirus and cybersecurity products, which are increasingly in demand as cybercriminals devise more sophisticated methods. The stock of one prominent cybersecurity firm, FireEye, closed on Wednesday at $34.20 a share, 71 percent above its initial public offering price in September, though far below a high of almost $96 that it reached in March.
Highland Capital previously recorded a big success with its investment in Qihoo 360, a Chinese Internet security company that went public in 2011 and now has a market capitalization above $20 billion.
Mr. Kleczynski said Malwarebytes is still profitable, but he wanted to raise additional money to hire more employees, including sales people and engineers. Malwarebytes, though it would not disclose its revenue or profit, said it had 60 million quarterly active users of its products.
“We don’t see that kind of size very often at all, particularly for a company that has literally bootstrapped itself,” said Jeremiah Daly, the partner at Highland Capital who placed the original call.
Malwarebytes, based in San Jose, Calif., offers a free product as well as a subscription antivirus service, and it has attracted individual and business customers.
The free product, which can be downloaded from the company’s website, provides a one-time cleanup of a Windows computer, seeking to neutralize intruders that other antivirus programs don’t catch. Malwarebytes hopes that users will enjoy the experience enough to sign up for the $25-per-year subscription service, which can supplement an existing antivirus program.
Mr. Kleczynski, 24, became interested in malicious software in 2004, when his parents’ computer became infected. He went to online forums to do research. Several years later, while participating in an online forum, he encountered Bruce Harrison, who would help him start Malwarebytes.
But the two initially did not meet in person. Only when the company started taking off did they arrange a meeting. “I met Bruce in person after we made our first million dollars,” Mr. Kleczynski said.
Mr. Kleczynski, who said he worked on the company while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, moved just a few days ago to San Jose.
Now, with new investors, Malwarebytes is hoping to continue its growth. Highland is planning to take a hands-on approach, including by helping to hire employees, Mr. Daly said.
“It took months and months of meeting and convincing that Highland could add value to the company,” Mr. Daly said, “before we closed the investment.”
It was February 2013, and Mr. Kleczynski, the chief executive of an antivirus start-up called Malwarebytes, had received a cold call from a venture capitalist hoping to discuss a possible investment. But Malwarebytes, which started in 2008, was already making enough profit to sustain itself.
Now, a little more than a year later, Mr. Kleczynski has accepted the check. Malwarebytes announced on Thursday a $30 million investment from Highland Capital Partners, the same firm that tried to get in the door in 2013. It is the first outside capital Malwarebytes has raised.
The investment shows investors’ continued hunger for antivirus and cybersecurity products, which are increasingly in demand as cybercriminals devise more sophisticated methods. The stock of one prominent cybersecurity firm, FireEye, closed on Wednesday at $34.20 a share, 71 percent above its initial public offering price in September, though far below a high of almost $96 that it reached in March.
Highland Capital previously recorded a big success with its investment in Qihoo 360, a Chinese Internet security company that went public in 2011 and now has a market capitalization above $20 billion.
Mr. Kleczynski said Malwarebytes is still profitable, but he wanted to raise additional money to hire more employees, including sales people and engineers. Malwarebytes, though it would not disclose its revenue or profit, said it had 60 million quarterly active users of its products.
“We don’t see that kind of size very often at all, particularly for a company that has literally bootstrapped itself,” said Jeremiah Daly, the partner at Highland Capital who placed the original call.
Malwarebytes, based in San Jose, Calif., offers a free product as well as a subscription antivirus service, and it has attracted individual and business customers.
The free product, which can be downloaded from the company’s website, provides a one-time cleanup of a Windows computer, seeking to neutralize intruders that other antivirus programs don’t catch. Malwarebytes hopes that users will enjoy the experience enough to sign up for the $25-per-year subscription service, which can supplement an existing antivirus program.
Mr. Kleczynski, 24, became interested in malicious software in 2004, when his parents’ computer became infected. He went to online forums to do research. Several years later, while participating in an online forum, he encountered Bruce Harrison, who would help him start Malwarebytes.
But the two initially did not meet in person. Only when the company started taking off did they arrange a meeting. “I met Bruce in person after we made our first million dollars,” Mr. Kleczynski said.
Mr. Kleczynski, who said he worked on the company while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, moved just a few days ago to San Jose.
Now, with new investors, Malwarebytes is hoping to continue its growth. Highland is planning to take a hands-on approach, including by helping to hire employees, Mr. Daly said.
“It took months and months of meeting and convincing that Highland could add value to the company,” Mr. Daly said, “before we closed the investment.”