The Hague Based Eye Security Raises € 36 Million Led by JPMorgan

Dutch cybersecurity firm Eye Security has raised €36 million from JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners and their current shareholders Bessemer Venture Partners and TIN Capital. The Hague-based company offers cyber security as well as a cyber insurance. The company was set up four years ago by three former employees of Dutch intelligence services and wants to accelerate growth in Europe.

The investment is one of the largest in a Dutch cyber security company in recent years. Eye Security expects to grow rapidly with the new capital, also thanks to European rules for cyber security that will become stricter in October and apply to more sectors. Companies will then have to do more work on tracking vulnerabilities and crisis management. 

Eye Security has 120 employees and expects twice as many next year. In addition, they expect their sales to double this year and again next year.

"We started the company to make cyber security much easier and cheaper," says Kuijpers. "And we wanted to make protection against cyber risks insurable. It's actually a trade-off for companies: how much am I going to solve with security measures and what remaining part do I cover with insurance."

Why funding a healthy and profitable company?

Kuijpers: "European companies are - at a very large scale -vulnerable to cyber attacks. This threatens our ability to create wealth and remain a free, open and independent society. We are on a mission to stop this. We want to help as many European companies as fast as possible becoming cyber resilient with better technology and service. It’s a mission that we worked on over a decade at the Dutch Intelligence & Security Service and a mission that continues here". 

Previously, Eye Security raised money from US-based Bessemer Venture Partners and The Hague-based TIN Capital (Dutch Security Techfund), which were also involved in the current investment. In total, the company received some €58 million in growth capital. The majority of the company is still owned by its founders. 

Source: FD & Eye Security

Photo: Eye Security’s founders, left to right, Piet Kerkhofs, Job Kuijpers and Vincent van de Ven. PHOTO: EYE SECURITY,  photographer Sicco van Grieken