This fraud-detection company co-founded by an Australian was just sold for $1.01 billion

Digital payments and fraud detection firm ThreatMetrix, which was co-founded by Australian entrepreneur David Jones, will be acquired by British analytics firm RELX for more than $1 billion.

The company’s chief financial officer Frank Teruel confirmed the deal on Monday, explaining in a blog post the company had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which is owned by RELX, in an all-cash offer worth £580 million ($1.01 billion).

Teruel reflected he had seen the company grow from a “scrappy Silicon Valley startup” to a global player that delivers services to thousands of financial institutions and e-commerce businesses.

Today @ThreatMetrix and @LexisNexisRisk come together. A quantum leap forward. #cybersecurity will never be the same. https://t.co/2nWnqsd4g2 pic.twitter.com/msaev02grd

— ThreatMetrix (@ThreatMetrix) January 29, 2018

ThreatMetrix offers fraud detection and customer authentication products to organisations including banks and healthcare providers. It was founded by Australian David Jones and software engineer Scott Thomas in 2005, with the company expanding to the United States in 2008.

Jones, a former mentor for the Startmate accelerator program, still serves on the company’s board of directors, according to its website.

The chief executive of risk and business analytics at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Mark Kelsey, said ThreatMetrix was an attractive purchase given the demand for “more reliable, comprehensive approach to fraud and identity risk management” across “all forms of commerce” at present.

Chief executive of ThreatMetrix Reed Taussig said in a statement the acquisition represents “a compelling market opportunity” for customers and partners.

ThreatMetrix previously acquired Australian IT security firm Trust Defender in 2012, with Trust Defender co-founder Ted Egan saying at the time the deal made sense for both operations.

“They have a great fraud prevention platform, and we had more products on the malware side of things,” said Egan, who continues to work for ThreatMetrix as vice president in the Asia Pacific region.

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