Fortress Information Security (Fortress), the leading supply chain cybersecurity provider for critical industries, today announced that it received a $125 million strategic investment from funds managed by the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs). This new investment will support Fortress’s mission of securing U.S. critical industries from cybersecurity and operational threats emanating from their supply chains. Existing investors, including co-founders Peter Kassabov and Alex Santos, ClearSky, First Analysis, American Electric Power, Caron Capital, KMMT, and Moquin Capital, will continue to support Fortress as investors.
Fortress is transforming how critical industry operators and government agencies secure their supply chains in the face of increasing supply chain cybersecurity threats. Founded in 2015, the Fortress platform is a deep, fit-for-purpose solution that enables customers in critical industries to assess, manage, and address risks associated with vendors, assets, and software in their supply chains. Fortress enhances cybersecurity postures and compliance with relevant regulations. The Fortress solution was co-developed with leading electric utilities and has since grown into a consortium tool that includes five of North America’s ten largest investor-owned utilities. Fortress’s platform secures 40% of the U.S. power grid, substantial national defense-related assets, and critical manufacturing industries.
As critical industries increasingly face cybersecurity threats emanating from the supply chains that underlie them, federal government and private sector stakeholders have recognized that securing critical supply chains is a national security issue. In response, authorities such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have released supply chain cybersecurity guidelines in the past year.
“Supply chain cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges facing business and government leaders today. Supply chains represent a source of significant threats to the national economy and our ability to maintain our way of life,” said Peter Kassabov, executive chairman and co-founder of Fortress. “We started Fortress because we recognized major supply chain vulnerabilities in our country’s most critical industries. Many recent high-profile breaches have spawned a new wave of regulatory action in the U.S. that will likely expand for the foreseeable future.”
“The Goldman Sachs investment validates the hard work of our employees and clients who have brought collaborative cybersecurity to life,” said Alex Santos, Fortress CEO and co-founder. “This growth capital infusion will empower us to accelerate the execution of our vision of resilient supply chains.”
“Fortress has established itself as a market leader in end-to-end supply chain cybersecurity solutions for U.S. critical industries and we look forward to scaling the company’s Asset-to-Vendor network, which provides significant value to critical infrastructure suppliers and customers,” said Will Chen, managing director within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “The depth and breadth of the Fortress platform are unmatched and we believe there is a meaningful opportunity to accelerate the expansion of the platform into compelling product adjacencies, including software and hardware bill of materials, workflow orchestration, and additional analytics and reporting capabilities.”
Foley & Lardner LLP acted as legal advisor, and DBO Partners acted as financial advisor to Fortress. Goodwin Procter LLP acted as legal advisor, and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as financial advisor to Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Further terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
