Dean Drako, founder of Barracuda Networks and Eagle Eye Networks, announced his purchase of Brivo Systems for $50 million cash.

Mr. Drako is currently the President and CEO and founder of Eagle Eye Networks, a cloud-based provider of video surveillance systems. Brivo is a cloud-based access control provider and a pioneer of cloud systems in physical security.

Drako personally acquired Brivo as Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo announced a strategic alliance back in April of 2015.

Brivo co-founder and CEO Steve Van Till will remain CEO of Brivo. The entire Brivo team will stay intact and Drako will serve as chairman.

Dean Drako and Brivo announced today that the company has been wholly acquired for $50 million by Dean Drako, entrepreneur, president and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks. As Brivo’s owner, Drako will serve as the company’s chairman, and Steve Van Till, Brivo’s president and CEO, will continue leading the company.

Brivo’s cloud-based access control system currently services over 6 million users and over 100,000 access points, providing feature-rich access control for small and medium businesses, along with unmatched scalability and centralized management for global enterprises.

“My goal was to acquire the physical security industry’s best access control system,” said Dean Drako. “Brivo’s true cloud architecture and open API approach put it a generation ahead of other access control systems. Cloud solutions provide exceptional benefits and Brivo is clearly the market and technology leader. Brivo is also committed to strong, long-standing relationships with its channel partners, which I believe is the best strategy for delivering extremely high customer satisfaction.”

With this acquisition, Drako will apply the strategy and execution processes he used at his other successful companies, including Barracuda Networks, to leverage Brivo’s technology lead and growth trajectory. In particular, Drako sees the opportunity to accelerate the cloud technology shift already underway in the physical security industry by combining Brivo’s cloud access control with his cloud video surveillance company, Eagle Eye Networks.

Immediate Business and Technology Acceleration following Acquisition

As a first step, Brivo will begin selling an integrated solution unifying Brivo OnAir cloud-based access control with Eagle Eye Networks’ cloud security camera system. The combined solution will offer a cloud based video surveillance and access control solution which is bi-directionally integrated using the open APIs from both companies. This will deliver:

Video verification of door events, with natively viewable and searchable video.
Door event visibility in video: Brivo OnAir door events will appear within the Eagle Eye Security Camera VMS.

Because Brivo and Eagle Eye are both cloud-based, the combined solution uniquely offers flexible deployment, with scalability and cyber-secure remote management. Sales will begin in July.

“We are extremely excited that Dean Drako has acquired Brivo and is serving as chairman. In addition to Dean’s experience founding and leading Barracuda Networks to be a multi-billion dollar company, he has grown his latest company, Eagle Eye Networks, to be the technology leader in cloud video surveillance,” said Steve Van Till, president & CEO, Brivo. “We both share the vision of delivering the tremendous advantages of cloud-based systems to our customers.”

Dean Drako is a parallel entrepreneur, investor, and engineer. In addition to his role as owner and chairman of Brivo, Drako is founder, president and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks, delivering the first on-demand cloud based security and operations video management system (VMS) with both cloud and on-premise recording. Prior to forming Eagle Eye Networks, Drako was founder, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, where he developed the IT security industry’s first spam filter appliance.

From Barracuda’s inception in 2003 through 2012, Drako grew the company to be an IT security industry leader, with more than $200 million in annual sales and 150,000 customers. Barracuda Networks completed its IPO on the NYSE in 2013. In 2007, Drako won the Ernst and Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year. Goldman Sachs named Dean as one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2014.”

Brivo, Inc. is a worldwide leader of cloud-based physical access control systems. Currently servicing over 6 million users, the company’s award-winning Brivo OnAir provides unmatched scalability and centralized security management for global enterprises, while retaining the ease of use for small and medium sized customers. The Brivo OnAir security management system is unique in providing combined access and video management in a single cloud platform. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Brivo was founded in 1999.