Pitango Venture Capital, one of the earliest investors in cyber security company Forescout Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: FSCT), sold some of its shares in the company, reducing its holding to 5.5% as of the end of 2018.
Forescout, a US-Israeli company, which held its first offering on Nasdaq in last 2017 at a company value of $814 million, has a current market cap of $1.6 billion. Pitango invested in Forescout in 2001 at a company value of $15 million, after money. Pitango's holdings following the Nasdaq offering amounted to 11.4% of Forescout's shares, but Pitango took advantage of the rise in the share price and Forescout's secondary offering in March 2018 to sell part of its holdings for $14.3 million, which lowered its stake to 9.6%. Pitango founding partner Rami Kalish sits on Forescout's board of directors.
Another fund that sold shares in Forescout is California-based Meritech Capital Partners, which was also a shareholder in Forescout when the latter was a private company. As of last March, Meritech held 8.5% of Forescout. Meritech sold all of its shares in Forescout by the end of 2018 for proceeds estimated at $101 million. US venture capital fund Accel, which had a 9% stake in Forescout, sold all its shares for an estimated $115 million. UK fund Amadeus sold some of its Forescout shares for $34 million, reducing its holdings from 13.3% to 9.7%.
Forescout, managed by president and CEO Michael DeCesare, was cofounded by chairperson Prof. Hezy Yeshurun, chief research officer Oded Comay, chief architect Dror Comay, Doron Shikmoni, and Noga Alon.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 18, 2019
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