Last week, Waterloo-based cybersecurity firm eSentire announced a new $47 million investment to supercharge research and development and a relocation within the community to accommodate its rapid expansion.
The new funds will help the company build on its leadership position in a cybersecurity segment it pioneered, known as managed detection and response (MDR), with new artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
“Protecting the scale of information that is widely distributed across an organization’s infrastructure, endpoint, customers and supply chain partners requires the continued innovation of MDR by applying AI technology with expert analysts,” eSentire Chief Executive Officer Kerry Bailey said.
The company is planning a move to Waterloo’s Factory Square location in mid-2019, joining a wide variety of tech-based companies including McAfee, Arctic Wolf and VueReal. The move places eSentire in close proximity to the University of Waterloo – Canada’s top computer science school and a leader in cybersecurity training – which is a key source of talent for the company.
This announcement comes just one week after BlackBerry, the security and smartphone innovator, finalized the acquisition of California-based cybersecurity company Cylance for $1.4 billion. The move makes BlackBerry one of the world’s largest cybersecurity firms and the anchor for a rapidly growing local security ecosystem that now includes more than 50 companies.
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