Antivirus vendor Avast Software raises $100M in private equity
August 23, 2010
The security software industry is heating up; the latest evidence is private equity firm Summit Partners has just invested $100 million in antivirus software vendor Avast Software.
The investment comes on the heels of Intel’s $7.68 billion acquisition of antivirus vendor McAfee, as well as a number of other deals that have made security technology companies into a hot commodity. Prague-based Avast has upset the traditional antivirus market by giving away its software for free. In this “freemium” model, the company tries to upsell users on paid software with more features. The software protects more than 100 million users.
“Summit Partners’ investment is a vote of confidence in our disruptive ‘freemium’ business model, which combines a full-fledged free product with a premium one,” said Vince Steckler, chief executive Avast Software. “Instead of paying for advertising or installation on new computers, Avast continues to experience dramatic growth as fans of Avast recommend our products to their friends.”
The company depends on word-of-mouth marketing from its users. The company’s software now protects about one out of every five computers around the world. Avast claims that independent tests show that its software protects better than paid products.
Avast was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis. They have seen the number of virus threats and the scope of their business grow dramatically in the past two decades. The company launched its free distribution model in the early 2000s.
“After writing a program to remove the Vienna virus back in 1988, it was about six months before I saw another virus. Now our Virus Lab adds 3,000 new virus samples a day to its database,” said Baudis.
