Cybersecurity firm Cobalt, founded in Berlin and now headquartered in San Francisco, has appointed a British CEO based out of its UK office.
The Pentest-as-a-Service company said Chris Manton-Jones, a former GM of international markets and SVP of worldwide sales at SaaS leader LogMeIn, would lead it through a new stage of expansion.
The company’s solution combines a highly skilled, closely vetted community of skilled pentesters with a technology platform. It enables real-time collaboration throughout a pentest and claims to launch a pentest in a fraction of the time compared with traditional consultancies.
In the past two years Cobalt has secured $29 million in Series B funding, doubled its global workforce, and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. It counts more than a thousand businesses as customers including Hubspot, Verifone and Snow Software.
Cobalt plans to double its headcount and achieve 60% revenue growth.
“Traditional pentests are not fit for purpose in the current security landscape,” said Gajan Rajanathan, general partner at Highland Europe and a Cobalt board member.
“Businesses today require quality results, delivered as a service, in days rather than weeks or months. Cobalt is experiencing steeply accelerating demand for its Pentest-as-a-Service offering and Chris is a proven SaaS leader who knows how to harness this momentum.
“He brings a vision and proven track record of success, and is just the right person to lead Cobalt through this next phase of growth.”
During six years at LogMeIn he spearheaded the expansion of the company’s LastPass product, which grew from $10 million to $150 million ARR. He previously held executive posts at Peregrine Systems (now HP), Witness Systems (now Verint), Unica and IBM, where he led the business unit through triple-digit growth in the span of two years.
Manton-Jones added: “I am honoured to be Cobalt’s CEO. I see so much opportunity ahead of us, as we disrupt the world of traditional pentesting through a powerful mix of world-class pentesters coupled with a revolutionary SaaS platform.”
Founder Jacob Hansen, who served as CEO since Cobalt’s inception in 2013, will remain as a board member.