This week, RingCentral, a company known for stepping up to video-chat giant Zoom, announced the acquisition of Israeli startup Kindite. According to RingCentral reports, the company will look to implement the Israeli developed technology, in addition to onboarding its developing team, in order to provide customers with improved privacy and security settings. The exact acquisition amount has yet to be announced, however, it’s estimated to be in the tens of million of dollars range.
Kindite’s data-protection platform incorporates a set of cryptographic key orchestration technologies which delivers enhanced security, privacy and compliance. These technologies allow cloud applications to process encrypted data without decryption, creating a secure “zero-trust” cloud environment. Right now, existing solutions require companies to relieve control over cryptographic keys, or reside to a delicate, agonizing installation process.
Kindite was founded in early 2017 by Maor Cohen, previously Head of Biz Dev at Hola, and Aviad Lahav, an experienced software developer and 8200 unit graduate. According to Pitchbook, Kindite has raised close to $6.5 million, with $4 million coming during the startup’s Seed round.
The acquisition helps expand RingCentral’s Israeli footprint, with CEO Maor Cohen leading the Zoom challenger’s new Israeli R&D outfit.
RingCentral was founded back in 1999, and develops software-based communication systems. Today, the company is traded publicly with a $28 billion market cap. Recently, RingCentral found itself in controversy following a lawsuit filed by Zoom, it’s main competitor. Zoom claims that the companies worked together over the past 7 years, with RingCentral marketing video conferences under the name RingCentral Meetings, and using Zoom technology. Last April, Ring launched RingCentral Video, which is based on private technology, but according to Zoom, has continued marketing its products to new customers.