- GeneralM&A
- January 8, 2021
- 4 minutes read
Equifax Buys Fraud Detection Company Kount For $640M
The consumer credit reporting giant Equifax has reached a deal to acquire Kount, an Idaho-based company that provides fraud detection…
The consumer credit reporting giant Equifax has reached a deal to acquire Kount, an Idaho-based company that provides fraud detection solutions for e-commerce businesses. Equifax will pay $640 million to buy Kount, marking a big exit for the technology scene in the state of Idaho.
Equifax already has a major hand in digital identity and fraud prevention solutions so its acquisition of Kount looks very strategic. The Atlanta-based credit reporting giant will expand its footprint in the market with the acquisition of Kount that’s expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Kount’s full suite of fraud detection products will be integrated to the Equifax Luminate fraud detection platform. As to operations, all of Kount’s employees will join Equifax’s United States Information Solutions (USIS) business unit and continue to be based in Idaho.
Kount represents a landmark exit for the technology industry in Idaho, a state that’s not known to frequently produce exits in the ballpark of hundreds of millions of dollars. Kount was founded in 2007 in Idaho and has remained based there ever since. The company is known to be backed by just one institutional investor, CVC Capital Partners.
Likely, the $640 million purchase price for Kount has produced bountiful rewards for its anchor backer CVC as well as the company’s founders and employees. CVC put in the sum of $80 million into Kount in 2015 as an investment to scale its growth efforts. Now, that investment appears to have paid off handsomely.
For CVC, Kount’s exit seems big but also seems like a drop in the bucket for a private equity firm with over $109 billion of assets under management. The firm invested in Kount through its growth venture, CVC Growth Partners, which targets technology investments with two dedicated funds totaling over $2.5 billion.
The growth outfit, CVC Growth Partners, was established just in 2014 compared to CVC itself which was founded 40 years ago.
