New Elsewhere Outlier: Foresite
Cybersecurity is top of mind for organizations of all sizes.
It's hard to miss the headlines these days. Marriott exposed more than 5 million unencrypted passport numbers and 20 million more personal records in a data breach that had affected the hotel chain since 2014. Equifax revealed personally identifiable information of over 148 million people including social security numbers, credit cards, and email addresses. Almost half of small and medium-sized businesses experienced a cyberattack in the past year.
But as companies are targeted by hackers through increasingly sophisticated methods and tools, IT and security teams struggle to keep up. According to Forbes, there will be 3.5 million unfilled security positions by 2021. With demand for security talent increasing and a constrained supply, it is both cost prohibitive and logistically difficult to bring on experienced security personnel full-time without a Fortune 500-sized budget.
How do mid-market companies keep up?
Enter the MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider), or companies made up of cybersecurity experts that are able to provide 24/7/365 security monitoring to a number of customers across industries.
Because MSSPs specialize in cybersecurity and serve a broad base of clients, they are able to attract and retain top tier security personnel for ongoing monitoring, incident response, and product development. Demand for MSSPs is on the rise as mid-market companies realize the gravity of cyber attacks and work to improve their security posture. Smaller companies are feeling the pressure too, and have asked their IT managers (generally a Managed Service Provider, or MSP) to step up their security offerings. MSSPs are perfectly equipped to fill these market gaps.
Partnership: Elsewhere Partners | Foresite
Foresite an Overland Park, Kansas-based MSSP, was founded in 2013 and developed ProVision - a state-of-the-art proprietary software platform for threat detection, monitoring, and compliance that is serviced through their two SOCs (Security Operations Centers) that are staffed with industry leading security analysts who provide round-the-clock monitoring for customers. The Founders of Foresite, Robin Mayo (CEO) and Marc Brungardt (President), have proven domain expertise and have built out a first class team to serve the evolving needs of their customer base.
Elsewhere Partners invested growth capital in Foresite to accelerate the go-to-market strategy, expand the sales organization, and support further product development. Elsewhere represents the first institutional capital raised by the Company. In addition to the investment of capital, Rita Selvaggi, one of Elsewhere's Operating Advisors, will join Foresite's Board of Directors. Rita was previously CMO of AlienVault and is a seasoned tech executive with deep security market expertise.
We are excited about the future of Foresite, and are confident that their state-of-the-art software platform and seasoned management team will ensure that their customers are kept safe, while increasing cybersecurity demand in the mid-market will accelerate Foresite's growth.