KnowBe4 is planning to use M&A and organic growth to grow to a multibillion-dollar business, said Bryan Palma, who was appointed CEO last month.

The Clearwater, Florida-based cybersecurity company sees itself as the human risk management market leader and plans to play an active role in the ongoing sector consolidation, Palma said. The consolidation is being driven by organizations’ desire to purchase more products from the same vendor, a trend that will continue for many years, he said.

Palma pointed to the acquisition of German AI-powered cyber security services company Hornetsecurity by Proofpoint, a Sunnyvale, California-based cyber security solutions provider, earlier this month, as a recent example.

Palma noted that there are many companies for sale. While transaction prices have come down, they are still a little high, especially for companies with an AI offering, he added.

KnowBe4 is interested in acquisitions to expand into adjacent segments and in tuck-ins of technology and talent, he said. Fields of interest are, among others, smishing-cyber-attacks that use text messages; voice phishing; and deepfakes, which are AI-generated videos, images or audio, he added.

KnowBe4 also wants to use M&A to accelerate geographical expansion in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, he added. About 50% of its revenues are from North America, he said. The company has a direct presence in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Dubai, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, India and Singapore, according to its website.

KnowBe4 has a list of targets on its radar and the CEO will work with senior vice president-strategy and corporate development Marco Muto to refresh them in the coming weeks. He noted that the company’s M&A strategy is managed mainly in-house.

KnowBe4’s largest deal was in April 2024. It acquired Egress, a British adaptive and integrated cloud email security company, which reported USD 50m in revenue in 2023.  The company will consider targets of similar size to Egress as well as smaller technology buys, Palma said.

Vista Equity Partners acquired KnowBe4 in February 2023. The deal valued KnowBe4 at about USD 4.6bn on an equity value basis, as reported.

The new CEO wants to grow KnowBe4 to a multibillion-dollar company.

“Most influential companies in the space in the two-to-three-billion-dollar range are CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, and this is where I see us going and is where I want us to be,” he said, without providing a timeframe.

After reaching the multibillion size, many strategic options will be available, including an IPO, Palma said.

Palma would not disclose Knowbe4’s revenues but in 2022, before the Vista sale, the profitable company generated close to USD 400m, as reported. About 50% of the company’s revenue is from North America, Palma said.

KnowBe4’s competitors include players who provide only security awareness training like Hoxhunt, and companies such as Proofpoint and Mimecast that have a broader human risk management offering, the CEO said.

Palma has over 25 years of experience scaling technology enterprises. Most recently he was CEO at Trellix, a multibillion dollar cybersecurity company formed through the merger of FireEye and McAfee Enterprise. Prior to Trellix, he held positions at companies including Cisco, Boeing, EDS, PepsiCo and the US Secret Service.

With the appointment of Palma, founder and previous CEO Stu Sjouwerman transitioned to the role of executive chairman.