LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — K1 Investment Management, LLC (“K1”), a leading investment firm focusing on high-growth enterprise software companies, today announced the sale of its interest in portfolio company Checkmarx LLC (“Checkmarx”), the global leader in software security solutions for DevOps, to Hellman & Friedman LLC (“H&F”). H&F, joined by TPG, has acquired the company at a $1.15B valuation, and K1 will continue to own a minority interest.
The deal represents the largest acquisition of an application security company to date.
Since K1’s initial investment in 2013, Checkmarx’s revenues have grown more than ten-fold and has grown from less than 200 customers to over 1,400, including 40 of the Fortune 100 companies and 25 of the Fortune 50.
“We met the K1 team when we were around 40 employees and their passion for building category leaders was apparent,” said Emmanuel Benzaquen, CEO of Checkmarx. “They shared our vision to make software and security inseparable, and we are humbled that we have since become the global leader in software security solutions for DevOps.”
With K1’s partnership, Checkmarx made significant investments in technology, grew its headcount, and expanded its global presence.
“I want to thank the team at K1 for believing in us,” said Maty Siman, CTO and Founder of Checkmarx. “We’ve enjoyed working with K1 over the years and are excited to continue to call them friends and partners for many years to come.”
“In 2013, K1 identified an innovative security testing product solving a very difficult problem for large enterprises,” said Neil Malik, CEO of K1. “Since then, we have had the privilege to partner with Emmanuel, Maty, and their exceptional management team and see them execute on becoming the global leader in software security solutions.”
Evercore Group LLC acted as lead financial advisor and Stifel as advisor to Checkmarx for this transaction.
About K1
K1 builds category-leading enterprise software companies. As a global investment firm, K1 assists high-growth businesses achieve successful outcomes. K1 invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. With over 90 professionals, K1 changes industry landscapes by assisting with operationally-focused growth strategies. Since inception of the firm, K1 has partnered with over 125 enterprise software companies including category leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Checkmarx, Emburse, Granicus, Litera Microsystems, Rave Mobile Safety, RFPIO, Smarsh, WorkForce Software and Zapproved. For more information about K1, please visit https://k1.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/k1.
About Checkmarx
Checkmarx is the global leader in software security solutions for modern enterprise software development. Checkmarx delivers the industry’s most comprehensive Software Security Platform that unifies with DevOps and provides static and interactive application security testing, software composition analysis, and developer AppSec awareness and training programs to reduce and remediate risk from software vulnerabilities. Checkmarx is trusted by more than 40 of the Fortune 100 companies and half of the Fortune 50, including leading organizations such as SAP, Samsung, and Salesforce.com. Learn more at www.checkmarx.com.
