Security firm Impermium bought for undisclosed sum.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Internet giant Google has purchased the young Indian IT security firm Impermium for an undisclosed sum of money, announced Imperium CEO and co-founder Mark Risher.
Based in Bangalore and California, Impermium is a three year-old company that targets internet fraud, abuse, and spam. Co-founded by two Indians, Vish Ramarao and Naveen Jamal, the company received over $9 million in venture capital funds from firms such as Highland Capital Partners and AOL Ventures. The Google acquisition is big news for the fledgling enterprise, although details about the sale price are being kept under wraps.
“By joining Google, our team will merge with some of the best abuse fighters in the world,” said Risher in announcing the purchase. “With our combined talents we’ll be able to further our mission and help make the Internet a safer place. We’re excited about the possibilities.”
The three founders were all colleagues at Yahoo Mail in 1998 when they decided to leave and begin their own company. Ramarao and Risher stayed in California while Jamal headed up operations in Bangalore while Impemrium got on its feet; founded in 2010, it eventually became one of the leading anti-malware programs on the internet.
Google isn’t the only company that’s been scooping up Indian startups of late – Facebook has also been doing the same thing. Earlier this month, the social networking company bought Little Eye Labs for a sum of $10-$15 million dollars. The company is the creator of the Little Eye app, which monitors and reports the performance of a particular app to its developer. It’s also been reported that India will soon overtake America in Facebook users as well as smartphone usage very soon.
Twitter has also been making moves in India. Last month, they partnered with Swedish firm TrueCaller to expand their already substantial base within India. And tech giant Apple bought a company called Topsy in December as well, which was co-founded by two Indian Americans: Rishab Aiyer and Vipul Ved Prakash.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com