Connect with us

Technology

Dye & Durham Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2025 Financial Results

Published

on

Revenue up 5% to $120 million in Q1 FY2025, taking into consideration the TM Group divestiture ARR1,2 up 43% to $156 million, representing 32% of total revenue Leveraged Free Cash Flow1 of $28 million and net cash by operating activities of $48 million in Q1 FY2025

TORONTO, Nov. 7, 2024 /CNW/ – Dye & Durham Limited (“Dye & Durham” or the “Company”) (TSX: DND), one of the world’s largest providers of cloud-based legal practice management software, today announced its financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2024.

“Our business is performing well and remains on track,” said Matthew Proud, CEO of Dye & Durham. “We have demonstrated another quarter of organic revenue growth, strong growth in ARR, low churn and a year-over-year improvement in leveraged free cash flow of $35 million. Even more exciting than what we’ve accomplished, is our current trajectory. As macroeconomic conditions improve, we are seeing early signs of accelerated growth into Q2 FY2025. We remain focused on expanding our platform to support organic growth and market leadership.”

First Quarter Fiscal 2025 Highlights
(Comparison periods in each case are to the three months ended September 30, 2023)

Revenue was up 5% to $119.9 million, taking into consideration the TM Group divestitureOrganic Revenue Growth Rate1, 4 of 5.3% taking into consideration the impact of revenue adjustments; excluding this, the growth rate was 1.0%Annual Recurring Revenue2 was up 43% to $156.0 million, representing 32% of total revenue3Net loss of $9.3 million compared to a net loss of $13.5 in the equivalent period in the prior fiscal yearAdjusted EBITDA1 of $65.9 millionLeveraged Free Cash Flow1 of $28.2 million, an increase of $34.5 million compared to equivalent period in the prior fiscal yearNet cash provided by operating activities of $47.7 million, an increase of $5.1 million compared to equivalent period in the prior fiscal year

The Company continues to work towards reducing its net debt1 to Adjusted EBITDA1 ratio to below 4x. As a result of strong cash flows in Q1 FY2025, the Company made a voluntary prepayment of $20 million towards its term loan facility, an amount that exceeds its mandatory annual prepayment requirements by approximately four times.

Quarterly Dividend
On November 7, 2024, the Board of Directors approved a dividend for the three months ending September 30, 2024, in the amount of $0.01875 per common share, to be paid on or about November 21, 2024, to holders of common shares of record as of the close of business on November 14, 2024.

Conference Call Notification 
The Company will hold a conference call to discuss its business later today, Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET hosted by senior management. A question-and-answer session will follow the corporate update.

DATE: Thursday, November 7, 2024
TIME: 5:00 p.m. ET
RAPIDCONNECT: To instantly join the conference call by phone, please use the following URL to easily register and be connected into the conference call automatically: https://emportal.ink/4eR3QW2

TRADITIONAL DIAL-IN NUMBER: (416) 945-7677 or (888) 699-1199
TAPED REPLAY: (289) 819-1450 or (888) 660-6345
REPLAY CODE: 41112#

This call is being webcast and can be accessed by going to: https://app.webinar.net/bjagWZ4e56P.

1)    Represents a non-IFRS measure. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. For the relevant definition, see the “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” section of this press release. Management believes non-IFRS measures, including EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Leveraged Free Cash Flow and Organic Revenue Growth Rate, provide supplementary information to IFRS measures used in assessing the performance of the business by providing further understanding of the Company’s results of operations from management’s perspective. Please see “Cautionary Note Regarding Non-IFRS Measures”, and “Select Information and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures in the Company’s most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis, which is available on the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, for further details on certain non-IFRS measures, including the relevant reconciliations of each of Adjusted EBITDA and Leveraged Free Cash Flow to their most directly comparable IFRS measure, which information is incorporated by reference herein. Please see the “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” section of this press release for a reconciliation of Organic Revenue to Revenue.

2)    As of September 30, 2024.

3)    Excluding TM Group financial results.

4)    Organic Revenue Growth Rate is calculated by the total revenue in the current quarter period (excluding the pre-acquisition quarterly revenue of those acquisitions executed in the last twelve month period from September 30, 2024 and discontinued businesses) divided by the total revenue in the prior quarter period (excluding discontinued businesses). Below is a reconciliation of Organic Revenue to Revenue. The revenue adjustment was primarily related to the recognition impacts of entering into new three-year contracts following acquisitions made in the preceding 12 month period.

Organic Revenue Reconciliation

Q1 FY2025

Q1 FY2024

Revenue

119.9

120.1

TM Group Pre-Divestiture

6.0

Pre-Acquisition Reporting Results5

4.9

Organic Revenue1

115.1

114.1

Net Revenue Adjustment

1.2

6.3

Organic Revenue Net of the Impact of Revenue
Adjustments1

113.8

107.9

Organic Revenue Growth Rate4

1 %

Organic Revenue Growth Rate Net of the Impact of
Revenue Adjustments4

5 %

5)    Pre-acquisition quarterly revenue of those acquisitions executed in the last twelve months period and discontinued businesses.

Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation

Q1 FY2025

Q1 FY2024

Loss for the Period

(9.3)

(13.5)

Amortization, Depreciation and Impairment

40.0

39.6

Finance Costs

20.7

35.1

Income Tax Recovery

0.6

(2.6)

EBITDA1

52.0

58.6

Loss on Assets Held for Sale

0.2

Stock-Based Compensation6

5.2

3.5

Acquisition, restructuring and other costs7

7.9

6.1

Salaries Synergies8

0.8

0.3

Adjusted EBITDA1

65.9

68.7

6)    Stock-based compensation represents expenditures recognized in connection with stock options issued to employees and directors and cash settled share appreciation rights issued to directors and other related costs.

7)    Acquisition, restructuring, and other costs relates to professional fees and integration costs incurred in connection with acquisition, divesture, listing and reorganization related expenses. Restructuring expenses mainly represent employee exit costs as a result of synergies created due to business combinations and organizational changes and are expected to be paid within the fiscal year.

8)    Salaries synergies relates to the impact of the full period of cost synergies related to the actual or planned reduction of employees in relation to acquisitions.

Leveraged Free Cash Flow Reconciliation

Q1 FY2025

Q1 FY2024

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities

47.7

42.6

Additions to Intangible Assets

(4.1)

(11.1)

Purchases of Property and Equipment

(1.7)

(0.5)

Net Interest Paid

(11.9)

(36.1)

Payments for Lease Obligations

(1.7)

(1.2)

Leveraged Free Cash Flow1

28.2

(6.3)

About Dye & Durham

Dye & Durham Limited provides premier practice management solutions empowering legal professionals every day, delivers vital data insights to support critical corporate and property transactions and enables the essential payments infrastructure trusted by government and financial institutions. The company has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and South Africa.

Additional information can be found at www.dyedurham.com.

Non-IFRS Measures

This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies.

Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Company’s results of operations from management’s perspective and to discuss Dye & Durham’s financial outlook. The Company’s definitions of non-IFRS measures may not be the same as the definitions for such measures used by other companies in their reporting. Non-IFRS measures have limitations as analytical tools. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of Dye & Durham’s financial information reported under IFRS. The Company uses non-IFRS measures, including “EBITDA”, “Adjusted EBITDA”, “Leveraged Free Cash Flow” and “Organic Revenue Growth Rate” (each as defined below), to provide investors with supplemental measures of its operating performance and to eliminate items that have less bearing on operating performance or operating conditions and thus highlight trends in its core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. The Company’s management also uses non-IFRS financial measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period. The Company believes that securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS financial measures in the evaluation of issues.

Please see “Cautionary Note Regarding Non-IFRS Measures” and “Select Information and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures” in the Company’s most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis, which is available on the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, for further details on certain non-IFRS measures, including relevant reconciliations of each non-IFRS measure to its most directly comparable IFRS measure, which information is incorporated by reference herein.

EBITDA

“EBITDA” means net income (loss) before amortization and depreciation expenses, finance and interest costs including change in fair value of the Company’s convertible debentures, loss on settlement of loans and borrowings, realized loss on derivatives, gains or losses from re-financing transactions and provision for income taxes. 

Adjusted EBITDA

“Adjusted EBITDA” adjusts EBITDA for stock-based compensation expense, loss on contingent receivables and assets held for sale, specific transaction-related expenses related to acquisition, listing and reorganization related expenses, integration and operational restructuring costs. Operational restructuring costs are incurred as a direct or indirect result of acquisition activities. Operational restructuring costs include the full period impact of cost synergies related to the reduction of employees for acquisitions.

Leveraged Free Cash Flow

“Leveraged Free Cash Flow” means net cash provided by operating activities less additions to intangible assets and property (including capitalized software) less net interest paid and payments under lease arrangements.

Organic Revenue Growth Rate

“Organic Revenue Growth Rate” means total revenue in the current quarter or year-to-date period (excluding the pre-acquisition quarterly or year-to-date revenue of those acquisitions executed in the last twelve months period and discontinued businesses) (“Organic Revenue”) divided by the total revenue in the prior quarter or year-to-date period (excluding TM Group, pre-acquisition quarterly or year-to-date revenue and discontinued businesses).

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which reflects the Company’s current expectations regarding future events, including with respect to the Company’s financial outlook and business strategy, including its debt reduction strategy and products and services. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as “plans”, “targets”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “an opportunity exists”, “is positioned”, “estimates”, “intends”, “assumes”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate” or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “will” or “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved”. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, nor guarantees or assurances of future performance but instead represent management’s current beliefs, expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events and operating performance.

Specifically, statements regarding Dye & Durham’s expectations of future results, performance, prospects, the markets in which we operate, or about any future intention with regard to its business, acquisition strategies and debt reduction strategy are forward-looking information. The foregoing demonstrates Dye & Durham’s objectives, which are not forecasts or estimates of its financial position, but are based on the implementation of its strategic goals, growth prospectus, and growth initiatives. The forward-looking information is based on management’s opinions, estimates and assumptions, including, but not limited to: (i) Dye & Durham’s results of operations continuing as expected, (ii) the Company continuing to effectively execute against its key strategic growth priorities, (iii) the Company continuing to retain and grow its existing customer base and market share, (iv) the Company being able to take advantage of future prospects and opportunities, and realize on synergies, including with respect of acquisitions, (v) there being no changes in legislative or regulatory matters that negatively impact the Company’s business, (vi) current tax laws remaining in effect and not being materially changed, (vii) economic conditions remaining relatively stable throughout the period, (viii) the industries Dye & Durham operates in continuing to grow consistent with past experience, (ix) the seasonal trends in real estate transaction volume continuing as expected, * the Company’s expectations regarding its debt reduction strategy being met, (xi) the Company being able to effectively cross-sell, and (xiii) those assumptions described under the heading “Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information” in the Company’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the period ended September 30, 2024. While these opinions, estimates and assumptions are considered by Dye & Durham to be appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances as of the date of this press release, they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.

The forward looking information is subject to significant risks including, without limitation: that the Company will be unable to effectively execute against its key strategic growth priorities, including in respect of acquisitions; the Company will be unable to continue to retain and grow its existing customer base and market share; risks related to the Company’s business and financial position; that Dye & Durham may not be able to accurately predict its rate of growth and profitability; risks related to economic and political uncertainty; income tax related risks; and those risk factors discussed in greater detail under the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent annual information form and under the heading “Risks and Uncertainties” in the Company’s most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis, which are available under Dye & Durham’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Many of these risks are beyond the Company’s control.

If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the opinions, estimates or assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results or future events might vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information.

Although the Company bases these forward-looking statements on assumptions that it believes are reasonable when made, the Company cautions investors that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that its actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity and the development of the industry in which it operates may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. In addition, even if the Company’s results of operations, financial condition and liquidity and the development of the industry in which it operates are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results of developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.

There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents Dye & Durham’s expectations as of the date specified herein, and are subject to change after such date. However, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of those statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws. Comparisons of results for current and any prior periods are not intended to express any future trends or indications of future performance, unless specifically expressed as such, and should only be viewed as historical data.

All of the forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements.

SOURCE Dye & Durham Limited

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

U.S. Quartz Workers: Strong Safeguard Remedies Needed to Save 100,000 American Manufacturing Jobs

Published

on

By

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Quartz Manufacturers Alliance for America (QMAA) released a powerful video featuring quartz manufacturing workers from across the country calling for free and fair trade policies to save 100,000 American jobs. QMAA, a coalition of leading U.S.-based quartz slab manufacturers, are calling for strong safeguard remedies after the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) found a huge flood of foreign imports had caused tremendous injury to the domestic quartz industry.

QMAA members are urging the Trump Administration to build on the ITC’s strong recommendation and address this major flood of quartz imports with a Tariff of 50% and a Reshoring Import Cap of 141 million square feet on imported quartz surface products. This will ensure a reshoring of the good-paying U.S. quartz manufacturing jobs stolen by companies who cheat U.S. trade law, distort competition and are decimating U.S. quartz manufacturing. Together, these trade remedies will provide the relief necessary to save the 100,000 jobs supported by the U.S. quartz industry.

The video features workers from LX Hausys, Guidoni USA and Cambria Company and is available here:
Save 100,000 American Quartz Jobs

Quotes from QMAA Quartz Manufacturing Workers
“This facility used to be a Husqvarna plant. Husqvarna closed down due to cheap foreign imports. There were over 1,000 people working here and all of a sudden…I’m worried I may see the same thing take place again.”
-Raymond Mack, Production Operator, Guidoni USA, Helena-McRae, GA

“Foreign countries, mainly China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, have been circumventing and cheating the American market. We believe in the industry. We believe in the American working power. We just want to level the playing field, make it fair for everyone and everyone will benefit.”
– Daniel Vas de Melo SA, Business Development Manager, Guidoni USA, McRae-Helena, GA

“In order for us to continue to compete, we need a strong Tariff and Import Cap on imported quartz surfaces. That will ensure we can play on an even playing field. That’s all we’re asking for. I would hate to see cheap, imported quartz have a negative impact on families such as mine and the other families that we employ here.”
– Mike Morici, Vice President – LX Hausys, Adairsville, GA

“The surge of foreign imports has shocked the U.S. economy, and the market for surfaces. It’s taken prices down to unsustainably low levels for any domestic supplier. The result of that is we’re not producing as much as we should, we can’t hire as many people as we would like to, and we can’t grow our business in the way that we and our peers in the U.S. want to grow.”
– Andrew Eich, President and Chief Operating Officer, Cambria

“As these foreign imports flood the market, we lose the ability to create and sustain jobs that ensure good paying conditions for manufacturing workers. There will be over 100,000 jobs that have the strong potential to go away.”
– Jack Sundry, SVP Core and Lexus – Cambria, Southern Minnesota

Background
In September 2025, QMAA filed a Global Safeguard petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) under Section 201 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. The ITC’s thorough investigation found serious injury to the domestic industry caused by a massive import surge designed to undercut American businesses. Quartz imports have surged by 78.3% within the past five years, leading to a nearly 20% decline in domestic production, factory closures and major job reductions.

A final safeguard decision from the United States Trade Representative is expected by Aug. 1, 2026.

About the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance for America:
QMAA is a coalition of U.S.-based, American quartz slab manufacturing factories, united with other industry leaders to support and strengthen the American quartz industry. QMAA is committed to ensuring a free and fair, competitive marketplace born of free enterprise that provides the opportunity to compete on a level playing field for American quartz slab manufacturing factories and their valued workers. We also believe this effort will have a positive impact throughout the entire quartz surfacing industry, including to the strong benefit of American stone fabrication shops and upstream suppliers of quartz minerals and resin. Learn more at: https://www.qmaa.org/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-quartz-workers-strong-safeguard-remedies-needed-to-save-100-000-american-manufacturing-jobs-302833444.html

SOURCE Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America

Continue Reading

Technology

Databricks and Microsoft expand partnership to help enterprises bring business context to enterprise AI

Published

on

By

Databricks and Microsoft extend strategic partnership through the 2030s to scale enterprise AIDatabricks deepens its bet on Azure, growing its use of Azure Databricks to run its own core business operations and analytics, while both companies advance native integration across the Microsoft stack, including Databricks Genie and Microsoft 365Databricks increases its use of Microsoft Azure Cobalt to improve performance and efficiency

REDMOND, Wash. and SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft Corp. and Databricks on Wednesday announced an expansion of their decade-long strategic partnership, extending into the 2030s. Databricks will deepen its use of Azure Databricks to run core business operations and build its unified lakehouse, while leveraging Azure Cobalt, Microsoft’s next-generation Arm-based infrastructure, to improve performance and efficiency. Microsoft will also continue integrating Databricks Data and AI platform across its products, bringing capabilities like Genie, Databricks’ AI co-worker, directly into customer workflows. Together, the companies are helping enterprises build AI grounded in their own business context with the cost efficiency, control and choice needed to scale successfully.

Enterprises want AI that understands their customers, products, operations, metrics and business processes, all while running securely where work happens. Yet, most still struggle to connect AI to trusted business knowledge, govern models and agents consistently, and control costs. Microsoft and Databricks are helping customers close that gap: 

“For nearly a decade, Databricks and Microsoft have helped enterprises innovate with data and AI,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co‑Founder and CEO of Databricks. “Today, our partnership is stronger than ever. With Databricks Genie and Unity AI Gateway deeply integrated across Microsoft’s products, we’re helping enterprises unify their data and ground AI in business knowledge. This lets customers get the full benefits of agents and models while controlling costs and ensuring governance.”

“The next generation of AI will be defined by how effectively organizations turn their unique knowledge into intelligence,” said Judson Althoff, CEO, Microsoft Commercial Business. “Microsoft and Databricks are helping customers connect data, AI and business context to accelerate decision-making and drive measurable impact. With Databricks deepening its investment in Azure Databricks and Azure Cobalt-powered infrastructure, customers will benefit from greater performance, efficiency and scale for their most demanding workloads. Databricks’ decision to run its own core business operations on Azure Databricks also gives customers confidence in a platform proven at enterprise scale.”

Databricks runs core business operations on Azure Databricks 

As part of this latest deal, Databricks deepens its commitment to Azure, running its own core business operations and analytics on Azure Databricks, using the very platform it delivers to customers at scale.

Advancing performance with Azure Cobalt

Databricks will also expand its use of Azure Cobalt, Microsoft’s next-generation Arm-based infrastructure, to improve performance and efficiency for agentic and data-intensive workloads. Databricks currently uses Cobalt 100 and plans to adopt Cobalt 200, which delivers up to 50% better performance and includes memory encryption enabled by default.

Deep integrations for Databricks Genie and Unity AI Gateway with Microsoft product stack

By combining the Databricks Data + AI Platform with Azure’s global scale, customers can accelerate AI transformation while maintaining control and reliability. As a native Azure service, Azure Databricks makes its AI capabilities available directly within customers’ existing Microsoft environment, grounding and operating agents on enterprise data with Genie and Genie Ontology, and governing models, agents and cost through Unity AI Gateway. Deeply integrated across the Microsoft ecosystem spanning Microsoft Entra, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure security, Microsoft OneLake, Power BI, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Foundry, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Teams and Copilot, these capabilities bring governed, real-time data and AI into business workflows, giving organizations the context, control, choice and cost efficiency needed to drive impact.

Continued investment is evident from our recent announcements with Databricks at Data + AI Summit in June.

Customer impact with Azure Databricks

The deepened collaboration strengthens support for joint customers running data, analytics and AI workloads on Azure Databricks, delivering improved performance, security, AI governance and enterprise readiness. Thousands of customers, including Banco Bradesco, the Cincinnati Reds, Electrolux, SMBC and Unilever, already use Azure Databricks to run critical workloads and scale AI with confidence.

Read more on the proven business value of the Databricks and Microsoft partnership on the Microsoft Azure blog.

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including AT&T, Bayer, BMW Group, HSBC, T-Mobile, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/databricks-and-microsoft-expand-partnership-to-help-enterprises-bring-business-context-to-enterprise-ai-302832954.html

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Continue Reading

Technology

Harness and Kong Expand Strategic Partnership to Deliver Comprehensive API and AI Security

Published

on

By

Joint solution extends proven API gateway security to the AI era — with automated AI discovery and runtime AI protection

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Harness, the AI Software Delivery Platform™ company, and Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, today announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to address the growing security challenges posed by AI-driven architectures, autonomous agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) deployments.

According to The State of AI-Native Application Security 2025 report, as enterprises race to deploy AI at scale, 62% have no visibility into where LLMs are in use across their environment, and 74% say AI sprawl will outpace API sprawl when it comes to risk — making embedded, infrastructure-level security more critical than ever. And companies are now deploying agents into their operations at an exponentially increasing rate, making it a necessity to protect the agents themselves and the systems interacting with those agents.

The two companies are extending their joint solution from Kong API Gateway to also include Kong AI Gateway, bringing Harness’s AI security intelligence directly into the AI infrastructure layer and enabling enterprises to discover, monitor, and protect every agent, AI asset, LLM-powered service, and MCP-connected workflow that traverses it.

A Proven Foundation: Harness and Kong API Gateway

Harness and Kong have been jointly trusted by enterprises to deliver best-in-class API security for years. The existing Harness and Kong API Gateway integration provides:

Comprehensive API traffic visibility and behavioral analysis across all Kong-managed servicesReal-time detection and blocking of API threats, including OWASP API Security Top 10 risks, credential stuffing attacks, and business logic abuseContinuous sensitive data tracking to identify PII exposure and regulatory riskZero-friction deployment alongside existing Kong configurations

This new offering of the AI Gateway solution applies the same level of security depth to AI infrastructure, ensuring that security teams are not left behind as their organizations adopt AI and agentic operations.

“Our partnership with Harness has given joint customers production-grade API security that works with the way they build, not against it,” said Ken Kim, Senior Vice President, Business Development at Kong Inc. “Extending to include Kong AI Gateway is a natural next step. The same enterprises are now moving AI into production through our gateway and need the same depth of visibility and control they’ve come to rely on for their APIs for all AI traffic types including LLM, MCP, and A2A. That’s exactly what this delivers and is crucial for organizations scaling in the agentic era.”

The New Frontier: Kong AI Gateway and Harness AI Security

As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, the attack surface has fundamentally shifted. AI agents, LLM-powered microservices, and MCP-enabled integrations introduce new vectors that traditional security tools were not designed to address. Unlike traditional software, AI agents are non-deterministic — the same agent can behave differently on consecutive runs, making it impossible to secure them the way you’d secure a static API. The new Harness and Kong AI Gateway integration directly tackles these challenges across two critical domains: AI discovery and AI protection.

AI Discovery
Harness automatically inventories every AI asset, API, MCP server, tool, prompt, and resource routed through Kong AI Gateway — providing security teams with a continuously updated catalog of their AI attack surface. No manual documentation. No blind spots.

AI Protection
Harness applies behavioral analysis and anomaly detection to AI traffic in real time, identifying prompt injection attacks, data exfiltration through AI responses, jailbreaking, malicious code in prompts, and other AI-specific threats. Enterprises gain the same depth of observability and protection for their agents and AI workloads that they already rely on for traditional APIs, with full prompt and response details available for incident investigation and inline policy enforcement through Kong AI Gateway.

“Shadow AI has become the defining security blind spot for enterprises today. Traditional tools were built for static code and predictable systems, not for adaptive AI models, agent-to-agent communication, and MCP-connected workflows that evolve continuously,” said Rahul Sood, GM of Application Security at Harness. “This integration of Harness AI Security with Kong puts security intelligence directly into the connectivity layer where AI traffic flows. Joint customers now have the visibility and control they need to move fast without losing sight of what’s happening across their AI infrastructure.”

Availability

The Harness and Kong API Gateway integration is generally available today for all joint customers. The Kong AI Gateway integration, including AI Discovery and AI Protection, is also generally available now. Joint customers can contact their account team or request a demo.

About Harness
Harness is the AI Software Delivery Platform™ company, enabling engineering teams to build, test, and deliver software faster and more securely. Powered by Harness AI and the Software Delivery Knowledge Graph, the platform brings intelligent automation to every stage of the software delivery lifecycle after code — removing toil and freeing developers from manual, repetitive work. Companies like United Airlines, Morningstar, and Choice Hotels use Harness to accelerate releases by up to 75%, cut cloud costs by 60%, and achieve 10x efficiency across DevOps. Based in San Francisco, Harness is backed by Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Unusual Ventures, and Citi Ventures.

About Kong

Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harness-and-kong-expand-strategic-partnership-to-deliver-comprehensive-api-and-ai-security-302833414.html

SOURCE Harness

Continue Reading

Trending