SECURE DEAL: Securly, a web monitoring and filtering company for schools, has acquired TechPilot Labs, a mobile device management tool for schools and IT administrators. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Based in San Jose, Calif., Securly aims to help schools block designated websites and flag harmful or inappropriate student activity online. The company does this through three tools: Filter, which allows schools to filter what websites students have access to when logged into campus WiFi; Auditor, which sends notifications to administrators and parents if the company’s AI detects a student’s typing or online activity signals any self-harm or violence; and Tipline, where students can anonymously report issues such as bullying.
With TechPilot Labs, Securly CEO and co-founder Vinay Mahadik says the company will continue to build out its suite of tools, from deploying devices and filtering websites to identifying potentially unsafe behavior. For the next year, he says the two companies will continue to operate as separate products, but “over time we see a unified platform so customers feel they are working with one single company.”
Securly has raised $24 million in venture capital to-date. Mahadik claims that around 10,000 U.S. schools use Securly and that 2,000 of those are paying customers. (The company offers free and paid versions of its tools, and prices vary depending on number of users.)
