Motorola Invests in Irvine-based Foundstone
By ANDREW SIMONS
Motorola Inc. recently plugged into Irvine network-security company Foundstone Inc. with an estimated $4 million investment.
Motorola Ventures, the company’s investment arm, declined to specify the size of its Foundstone funding. Based on public statements about Foundstone’s venture backing and the size of prior rounds, the Business Journal estimates the Motorola investment to be in the $4 million figure.
Last year, Foundstone received $2.5 million from Germany’s Articon-Integralis AG, a developer of security software. The company’s seed round took place in 2000.
“We’re comfortable at this point with what we have,” Foundstone Chief Executive George Kurtz said.
Foundstone, which Kurtz said counts $17 million in funding to date, plans to use the Motorola money to develop its technology.
The company offers a service called FoundScan that can examine the networks of large companies to see whether they’re vulnerable to hacker attacks.
Foundstone hopes its work with Motorola will help its FoundScan product work with wireless networks.
The investment is Motorola’s first in Foundstone. Foundstone has received $9 million in funding from firms such as Los Angeles’ Riordan, Lewis & Haden and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati PC.
Motorola’s Foundstone investment grew from an earlier deal between the two companies.
Foundstone did some security work for Motorola, which was so impressed it decided to put money into the company, officials said.
“We are continuing to work with them on security products for their own internal use,” Kurtz said. “And we are working with them in the development in our wireless technology.”
