Noname Safety, a cybersecurity startup that protects APIs, is in superior talks with Akamai Applied sciences to promote itself for $500 million, in line with an individual acquainted with the deal.

Noname was co-founded in 2020 by Oz Golan and Shay Levi and is headquartered in Palo Alto however has Israeli roots. The startup raised $220 million from enterprise traders and was final valued at $1 billion in December 2021 when it raised $135 million in a Collection C led by Georgian and Lightspeed. Whereas the sale worth is a big low cost from that valuation, the deal because it presently stands could be for money, the individual stated. The deal just isn’t last and will change or not occur in any respect.

Different traders who’ve backed Noname embody Perception Companions, ForgePoint, Cyberstarts, Next47 and The Syndicate Group.

Whereas the potential deal worth is half the valuation than Noname’s final non-public valuation, those that invested on the early stage will obtain a significant return from the sale. In the meantime, the deal ought to permit the later-stage traders, significantly those that invested within the final spherical, to get a full return on the capital they put in, if not the revenue that they hoped for throughout these heady days of 2021 when cash was flowing and valuations have been optimistic.

The deal values the corporate at about 15X annual recurring income, the individual stated. Noname’s roughly 200 workers are anticipated to transition to Akamai if the sale closes. 

Akamai declined remark. A Noname Safety spokesperson informed TechCrunch, “As a coverage, we chorus from commenting on rumors or hypothesis.”

The Info reported in January that Noname was attempting to boost one other financing spherical at a considerably decrease valuation. In February, Israeli information outlet Calcalist reported that Noname was in negotiations with a number of potential patrons, together with Akamai.

Many VC-backed corporations that raised capital on the peak of the tech growth noticed their valuations crater after the U.S. Fed raised rates of interest. Many are actually concurrently on the lookout for patrons and a brand new spherical of funding, identified within the finance world as a dual-track course of. In the meantime, many later-stage VCs are on the lookout for liquidity after greater than a yr of a frozen IPO market. So, the overall temper within the enterprise business is that, if strong IPOs don’t return quickly, will probably be cut price buying time for M&A exercise.