Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Acquires ExpressVPN Sparking Privacy Concerns

Israeli cybersecurity company Kape Technologies acquired ExpressVPN, a leading virtual private network provider, for $936 million, the company announced Monday.

The deal marks one of the largest foreign acquisitions by an Israeli firm.

Kape, founded in 2010, develops privacy and security products and serves 2.5 million paying subscribers globally.

The company went public in 2014 on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM section, designed for growth companies with lighter regulations.

ExpressVPN, born in 2009, dominates the VPN market, with servers in 94 countries and award-winning software for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.

VPNs create secure, private networks over public internet connections, hiding user identities and data.

The global VPN market, valued at $35.4 billion in 2020, is expected to soar to $92.4 billion by 2026, per Global Industry Analysts.

Kape’s been on a buying spree, gobbling up GhostVPN in 2017, Zenmate in 2018, and Webselenese, an Israeli privacy and security news provider, just six months ago.

This latest move catapults Kape’s subscriber base to over six million, cementing its status as a top-tier player in digital privacy and security, the company announced Monday.

"We’ve admired the ExpressVPN team’s relentless pursuit of excellence and innovation and are excited to welcome them to Kape. With ExpressVPN now part of the Kape family of world-leading privacy and security brands—together, we have the vision, talent, and resources to take the industry to the next level. Controlling one’s digital presence is at the forefront of every tech consumer’s mind now, and Kape is more committed than ever to innovating and delivering the tools internet users need to protect their data and rights," Kape’s CEO said in a company statement.

Dan Pomerantz, ExpressVPN’s co-founder and co-CEO, added, the firm will now have access to more capital and resources to "accelerate our product development, deliver even more innovation to our users, and protect them from a wider range of threats."

Kape employs 350 people across eight global offices, including Tel Aviv, Seattle, Berlin, Paris, and London.

The acquisition signals a major power shift in the fight for digital sovereignty.

As cyber threats loom larger, Kape Technologies bets big on dominating digital privacy. Will this acquisition reshape the VPN landscape, or is it just another step in a crowded race to secure your data? Only time will tell.