Operation intelligence firm Splunk, Inc. has acquired cyber-security startup Caspida, Inc. for $190 million.

According to a statement from the company, the deal includes $127 million in cash and $63 million in restricted Splunk securities.

Based in Palo Alto, Caspida is a cyber-security and threat detection company that automatically detects and prevents hidden threats in a corporate network.

The company claims to be the first in the industry to provide coverage for unknown threats that have already penetrated an enterprise system, without rules, signatures, sand-boxing or human analysis.

Caspida is all about finding new threats that may not be previously known, lurking APTs, new malware and unpredictable insider threats through what it describes as a novel behavioral threat detection approach.

“With this acquisition, our customers can now also better detect advanced threats – the breaches that are becoming more complex and severe with each passing day,” Senior Vice President of Security Markets at Splunk Haiyan Song said in a statement.

“With Caspida, Splunk accelerates its focus on solving advanced threats – both external and from insiders – by shining a light on those who are wrongfully using valid credentials to freely and unpredictably exploit systems they have accessed,” Song said. “By addressing the entire lifecycle of known and unknown advanced threats, and by providing a platform to detect, respond to and automate actions, Splunk has further reinforced its position as the security nerve center.”

Right environment for growth

The acquisition comes at a time when cyber-security breaches have become headline news and venture capital is increasingly flowing into the space.

Publicly listed, Splunk has had a decent representation in this market previously, with about a third of its first-quarter business coming from security analytics deployments, and this acquisition will strengthen its offerings, growing the business further, with the company adding, “Operationally, we plan to spend this year integrating the technology and expect it to contribute to top line revenues next year. We will absorb the expense base of Caspida this year, and we reaffirm our current full fiscal year 2016 revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, and operating cash-flow guidance.”

Caspida was founded only last year and had raised $11.5 million over two rounds from some very happy investors today, including First Round Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and True Ventures.

Naturally, the acquisition is subject to regulatory checks and final approval, but it wasn’t clear from either company when it will be finalized.

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