Brazilian cloud computing security company PSafe Technologia announced its third-round financing of USD30 million, including a reported USD25 million infusion from China's Qihoo 360 and USD5 million from Redpoint and Pinnacle.
Qihoo 360 confirmed the news of this investment and said it is an additional investment in PSafe. The Chinese company did not reveal the size of its stake in PSafe. However, it is said that with the investment, Qihoo 360 will become the largest shareholder of the company.
In 2010, Qihoo 360 reportedly formed a partnership with PSafe by providing a small investment and licensing rights. But the cooperation did not last long since Qihoo 360 was not optimistic about the development of PSafe.
PSafe is a Brazilian anti-virus company which has the same-name anti-virus software product. It currently has 30 million users and 20 million monthly users on average. The company does not have direct competitor in Brazil; however, it faces competition from international security makers such as AVG, Avast, McAfee, and Symantec.
Qihoo 360 has recently been expanding its investments in overseas markets. The company earlier purchased 818,500 outstanding shares of KLab, a Japanese mobile game developer, accounting for 2.56% of total shares of the latter.
Qihoo 360's financial report for the third quarter of 2013 showed that the company's operating revenue was USD187.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 124%; and its net profit attributable to shareholders was USD44.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 245%.