TrustArc has announced the acquisition of Nymity, the latest major development in a rapidly evolving privacy technology marketplace.
The deal will now bring together two of the most established vendors in the privacy space, both offering global privacy compliance and risk-management solutions to organizations across industry sectors.
Privacy Tech caught up with leadership in both organizations to find out more about the acquisition and what it means for their customers and the privacy tech market more broadly.
"One thing that's often lost in the market is depth," TrustArc CEO Chris Babel said. Both TrustArc and Nymity have been thinking about and working on privacy issues and been embedded in companies for a long time, he explained. In recent years, the proliferation of major privacy laws, like the EU General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act, as well as other laws in Brazil and around the world, has accelerated the need for technological solutions for the privacy profession.
"Our depth is there and the quality is there in both companies and that permeates all of these things," Babel said.
Nymity President and Founder Terry McQuay, CIPP/C, CIPP/E, CIPP/G, CIPP/US, CIPM, said he has been looking for the "right fit" for some time now, and that fit with TrustArc was clear to him. "When we were doing our due diligence for the deal," he said, "the more I learned about TrustArc, the better I felt."
In addition to a shared depth of experience in privacy, McQuay said there is a strong "cultural fit" between both organizations, something he's excited about.
TrustArc Senior Vice President of Privacy Intelligence and General Counsel Hilary Wandall, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM, FIP, also pointed to the breadth of experience ingrained in both companies and how they have each evolved along with the privacy ecosystem. This long background and history of innovation will continue moving forward, she said.
"We've both had a focus on helping companies get to accountability and compliance," Wandall said. "We both have had to rethink the changing paradigm to enable companies to get privacy done." She also said the early stages of the acquisition have been positive. "During our initial piloting, there has been a real synergy between our product development plans."
Nymity Vice President of Marketing Bruce Warren said, "Both companies have been pioneers in privacy compliance. At one time, there were no solutions out there, but both organizations were early innovators" to address the market's needs. In addition to new regulations around the world, Warren also noted the public is becoming more conscious of privacy as an issue, putting an even greater onus on companies to get privacy right.
The move, which aligns all of Nymity's solutions with TrustArc's platform, will also dramatically expand TrustArc's footprint. More specifically, Nymity's Privacy Management Accountability Framework will be integrated with TrustArc's Privacy and Data Governance Framework, and Nymity's extensive research will feed TrustArc's Privacy Intelligence platform, which includes its Intelligence Engine, Privacy Profile and Risk Profile.
For customers, Babel explained, there will be several easy short-term additions during the integration, including access across both platforms in such services as the news and insights feed. He also said where there's overlap in similar products, such as in their data subject access requests solutions and accountability frameworks, more information will be shared with customers, and, he said, they'll be proactive in their messaging to existing customers.
The other good news, Babel said, is that they are pulling both teams together, which will contribute to a "broader footprint" around the world. And for privacy pros looking for a job, take note: Babel said TrustArc is hiring.
Nymity's management team will also play a significant role. Warren will head up TrustArc's marketing initiatives, for example, while Nymity EU Operations & Strategy Director Paul Breitbarth's role will be expanded. "Paul brings us regulatory experience, a strong depth of expertise and relationships with key people in Europe. He will be leading our EU policy and strategy," Wandall said. "Integrating that with what I've done and what [TrustArc International Regulatory Affairs Director] Josh Harris has done is really exciting."
And what's next for McQuay? He will join the product team to work with Wandall to focus on solutions for the privacy profession. "Our competition won't like that," he said.
Product development and innovation around a constantly evolving privacy landscape is unsurprisingly part of TrustArc's longer-term strategy. When talking about the privacy tech marketplace more broadly, Babel points to how markets develop in different stages. For privacy tech, we are still in the early stages, where venture capital has exploded in Series A and B rounds for strategically focused companies.
Earlier this year, TrustArc received a Series D round of $70 million, some of which has fueled today's acquisition of Nymity, though the financial details of the deal are not public.
The privacy tech market may still be in its early stage of development, where companies are focused on the strategic side of things, but the TrustArc-Nymity deal is evidence of some early market consolidation. This comes after another major acquisition earlier this year by OneTrust's purchase of DataGuidance.
"It is a super fast-growing market," Babel said, "and we'll likely see more consolidation, but I suspect we'll continue to see companies still focused on the strategic side of things, in specific areas needed by the market." But eventually, he said, some companies will get acquired themselves or fall by the wayside. This has already happened, for example, for at least one company in the data discovery business.
For Babel, the acquisition of Nymity early in the overall market cycle, together with the deep expertise and talent that Nymity brings with it, is an exciting prospect, one that he believes will help it compete in a dynamic and evolving space.
