Varonis Acquires ‘AI-Native’ Email Security Vendor SlashNext

The data security vendor is aiming to enter the email security segment through the acquisition of SlashNext, valued at up to $150 million.

Varonis said Tuesday it’s aiming to enter the email security segment with the acquisition of SlashNext, a specialist in utilizing AI for detecting advanced email-based attacks.

The total value of the deal for SlashNext, which includes performance-based retention awards, could reach as high as $150 million, Varonis said in a statement. SlashNext has about 100 employees, Varonis told CRN.

A major player in data security, Varonis has previously offered security capabilities related to email as part of its data security posture management (DSPM) tool. Those capabilities have included discovery and classification of sensitive data in emails, according to Varonis.

Now the company is seeking to join the ranks of major email security vendors with the acquisition of SlashNext, which has specialized in utilizing AI/ML for protecting inboxes since its founding in 2015.

Subsequently, the company was early to recognize the opportunity to use GenAI for defending against LLM-enhanced phishing attacks. In February 2023, just months after the general availability of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, SlashNext debuted GenAI-powered email security capabilities utilizing internally developed LLMs.

“We have to shift from a reactive approach to a proactive approach—from a static, more-supervised AI model to a generative AI model—which is exactly what we’re doing here to solve and stop these threats,” SlashNext CEO Patrick Harr told CRN at the time.

In its news release announcing the acquisition Tuesday, Varonis said that SlashNext offers the “industry’s best” rate for detecting advanced phishing attacks, including a “100 percent” detection rate for attacks involving business email compromise and QR code scams.

For Varonis, the addition of “AI-native” email security through the acquisition of SlashNext “significantly expands our total addressable market,” Varonis co-founder and CEO Yaki Faitelson said in a quote included in the release.