New York tech giant swoops for Leeds-based risk intelligence firm Crisp

Leeds-based Crisp is a real-time risk intelligence company that protects brands, assets and people from reputational damage, security threats and online harms.

Adam Hildreth, founder and CEO of Crisp, said the deal would enable the business to take the step in its growth ambitions.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “Crisp has been on a very good projected growth curve for a number of years. We have circa 250 employees and we’ve got a really good client base of enterprise blue chip companies.

“We got to the point where as a business we needed to take the next big step.”

Kroll has offices around the world including one based at The Shard in London. It also has an office in Manchester.

“Leeds will be a big office for them globally, not just in the UK,” Mr Hildreth said.

The deal has been 18 months in the making with Mr Hildreth saying that Kroll is a good cultural fit for Crisp and that the deal made sense for both parties.

The entrepreneur will be staying on with the business alongside Crisp’s executive chairman Andrew Burke, becoming a part of Kroll’s digital services leadership team.

Mr Hildreth also said that there would be no change for existing employees other than the deal providing more resources to grow.

He added: “This is all about how we continue to grow Crisp. We’re now within a bigger business that has access to more resources, more offices around the world, more opportunities for our existing team. We’re continuing to recruit and hire as we always have done. Day-to-day in terms of what Crisp does, it increases our capabilities and the resources we have.”

Kroll has over 5,000 experts around the world. It recently completed the acquisition of Canadian risk intelligence technology firm Resolver.

Jake Silverman, CEO of Kroll, said: “The ethos of our business has long centred around risk, governance and value creation.

“This acquisition helps us reinforce our growing position as a tech-enabled firm that marries data and technology with global professional services. I am thrilled to welcome Crisp to the Kroll family.

“We now have the opportunity to combine our recently acquired Resolver platform with the capabilities of Crisp to create the most unique Risk Intelligence platform in the world.”

Law firm DWF’s legal advisory team advised the shareholder base on the sale, including senior management, Baird Capital, which invested in Crisp in 2018, and over 200 of Crisp’s employees who took equity and joined in the transaction.

Mission to protect

Crisp was established by Adam Hildreth in 2005 with a mission to protect children and teenagers using online games, apps and social networks from pedophiles and child exploitation groups.

Since then, Mr Hildreth’s original vision of helping to create a digital world that is safe for everyone has expanded to protect over $6.5 trillion in combined customer market capitalisation for over 1,000 brands.

Its artificial intelligence (AI) technology is trained to discover and track the risk signals embedded within digital chatter.