Hornetsecurity Buys Vade to Fuel Strength in France, Germany

Hornetsecurity purchased French email security vendor Vade to expand its geographic footprint and protection capabilities around Microsoft 365 for small and midsized businesses.

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The Pittsburgh-based cloud security and compliance provider said its acquisition of Vade will allow the joint company to have a strong presence in Europe’s two most important markets: France and Germany. The combination of Hornetsecurity and Vade will capitalize on Vade’s strength in Japan and the presence of both companies in the United States to serve MSPs and small businesses around the world.

“To be strong in Europe, you have to be strong in the two main countries, which are France and Germany,” Vade CEO Georges Lotigier told Information Security Media Group. “Hornet has blocked Germany completely, taking the highest market share as Vade is a really leading cybersecurity player in the email security, particularly in France.”

Comparing Hornetsecurity and Vade

Vade, founded in 2009, employed nearly 250 people. It received a $79.2 million investment in June 2019 from venture capital firm General Catalyst to increase its MSP footprint in the United States and tacked on another $30 million of funding in 2022. The company and former CTO Olivier Lemarie were ordered in August 2021 to pay email security rival Proofpoint $14 million for stealing trade secrets.

Hornetsecurity opened its doors in 2007 and employs more than 400 people. It has made six deals since 2019, scooping up security awareness training vendor IT-Seal, anti-spam company Zerospam, backup vendor Altaro, spam filtering and email archiving vendor EveryCloud Technologies, and secure digital communications firm Spamina. Its purchase of Vade closed last week. Terms weren’t disclosed.

“We quickly realized that it was an acceleration for both of us to join our forces and to combine the team and combine the products to build a very strong European company addressing the global market,” Lotigier said.

Hornetsecurity CEO Daniel Hofmann will lead the combined 650-person business, and Lotigier, 65, will move from an executive role into being a Hornetsecurity shareholder and board member. Since both Hornetsecurity and Vade have positive EBITDA and are growing at north of 30% annually, the company does not plan to reduce headcount or eliminate redundant roles stemming from the acquisition.

Rolling Out the Integration Road Map

Vade and Hornetsecurity began working at the end of 2023 to merge their products and teams, and Lotigier expects the integration work will be complete by the end of 2024. Then, MSPs will be able to manage security, compliance and data loss prevention for Microsoft 365 across the Vade and Hornetsecurity product suite from a single central control portal, according to Lotigier.

“To be strong in Europe, you have to be strong in the two main countries.”


– Georges Lotigier, CEO, Vade

Lotigier said Vade’s API-based email security capabilities for Microsoft 365 will be folded into the Hornetsecurity product suite, and the company’s white-labeled threat detection and email filtering offerings used by the likes of Cisco, Mimecast and Palo Alto Networks will be maintained as a separate business. Some 25% of Vade’s sales come from the U.S., and white labeling is the primary driver.

Going forward, Lotigier hopes the combined company will achieve annual revenue growth of at least 40% and EBITDA of at least 35% while continuing to invest in research and development and improving the efficiency of the sales operation.

“We have always tried to provide some automation to simplify the life of the CISO,” Lotigier said. “And with Hornet, who is more advanced in that regard, we will increase our position and offering for the CISO.”