If I were a betting man, I would have believed that Tenable was on its way to filing its papers for an IPO. After all, the company seemed to be growing organically nicely since its series A $50m round way back in 2012.
Known primarily for Nessus, its vulnerability management product, Tenable has evolved its offering over time. Security Centre built a series of inter-connected capabilities for continuous monitoring and analytics.
In a world filled with buzzwords of products surrounded by APT’s, nation-state espionage and Eastern European hackers for hire Tenable may not seem like its playing in an entirely commoditised area. Which may be correct, but truth be told, fundamental security is where most companies fail. Pick up a breach report and simple security hygiene is the cause of most losses.
A truly staggering and unprecedented $250m investment gives Tenable many options. It’s almost too big an amount for the company to fail – and that’s without having to worry about keeping the market happy had it gone down the IPO route.
With such a large investment, I expect to see acquisition(s) on the horizon – maybe even a big one. The right technology acquisition could help Tenable leapfrog its competitors both in terms of technical capability as well as breaking into new markets.
Javvad Malik 