Cloudflare Acquires Mobile App Specialist Neumob
14.11.2017 securityweek Mobil

Website performance optimization and security firm Cloudflare has expanded its reach to mobile with the acquisition of Neumob. The agreement brings Cloudflare's global optimization network to mobile apps built with the Neumob SDK. Financial details were not disclosed.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Neumob is a firm predicated on improving the performance of mobile computing. Poorly designed apps and the inherent latency of mobile computing mean that one of the most dynamic areas of the internet is also the slowest. Neumob addresses this issue with an SDK aimed at app developers. Its unique selling point is that even slight improvements in internet performance increase user retention and customer conversion.

The Neumob SDK improves load times and in-app performance by 30% to 300%, and reduces app errors and timeouts by up to 90%. It also significantly reduces bandwidth usage and data fees. "We have a purpose-built solution for the first, middle and last miles traveled in every session," explains the company on its website. The Neumob SDK is the world's first end-to-end accelerator for app owners and developers. It provides a mobile app with instant access to acceleration and error reduction features at all stages of the mobile delivery process -- the first mile, middle mile and last (mobile) mile."

The weakness is the 'middle mile' -- the internet itself. Neumob has sought to remedy this with the development of its own network of points of presence (POPs) -- 164 in 95 metropolitan areas across 6 continents. It's a start, but hardly a global network.

Cloudflare has that global network: 118 data centers in 58 countries with more than 7 million domains that already routes 10% of all HTTP/HTTPS Internet traffic. It also has the technology to move data across the internet with optimum performance. Argo, for example, analyzes the performance of network paths to route traffic across the fastest available paths. It maintains open secure communications and eliminates the latency of connection setup.

The combination of Neumob and Cloudflare will benefit both parties. "We've long needed a global network running at the edge to fully realize the technology we've created at Neumob," said Jeff Kim, co-founder of Neumob. "Now that we're a part of the Cloudflare team, we have a tremendous opportunity to engage with Cloudflare's customers and improve the mobile experience for users around the world."

"Cloudflare's mission is to help build a better Internet -- we mean that literally," said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. "With Neumob, we're now able to reach the last-mile of connectivity and provide the fastest and most secure experience possible for users everywhere, on any device."

Neumob was founded in 2015. It raised $10.9 in the same year -- $2.3 million in seed funding followed by $8.5 million in a Series A round led by Accel Partners.

San Francisco, CA-based Cloudflare was founded in 2009. It has raised a total funding amount of $182,050,000 -- the most recent being $110 million Series D funding led by Fidelity Investments in September 2015. It routes traffic through its own global network, blocking DoS attacks, reducing spam and improving performance.

Earlier this year, Cloudflare collaborated with Flashpoint, Akamai and RiskIQ in a cross-vendor project to neutralize the newly emerging WireX botnet.