Magnet Forensics
Software and hardware that police use to unlock phones and sort digital evidence. Thoma Bravo took it private in 2023, merged it with Graykey maker Grayshift, and has kept buying since.
Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023; Magnet, Apr 21, 2026- Owner
- Thoma Bravo closed the buyout on Apr 6, 2023. Founders and Jim Balsillie kept a minority stake.
- Price
- C$1.8B, about US$1.3B C$44.25 a share in cash, 160% above the C$17 IPO price of 2021.
- Revenue
- $98.9M in 2022 up 41%, with ARR of $92.0M (US dollars). The last figures published before the buyout.
- Watch
- Year four of the buyout no sale, recap or new investor reported. Buyout debt terms are not public.
- AI
- Magnet AI launched Apr 21, 2026: an agentic workflow that writes case summaries with citations to the evidence.
- Liquidity
- None for staff now public shares were cashed out in 2023. No staff equity plan or tender has been published since.
- Hiring
- 30 → 26 remote listings since Oct 10.
Licenses, support and access hardware for investigators.
Magnet sells tools that pull and analyze evidence from phones, computers, cloud accounts, vehicles and drones. Graykey and Verakey get into locked phones; Axiom analyzes data; Magnet One and Review hold and share cases in the cloud. In 2022, 88% of revenue was recurring (term licenses, subscriptions, support).
Magnet Q4 2022 results; Magnet User Summit 2026 post- 1The Graykey brand for locked phonesGrayshift said Graykey was used by over 1,200 agencies in 35 countries when Thoma Bravo agreed to combine it with Magnet.Thoma Bravo release, Jan 20, 2023
- 2A large and growing customer baseOver 4,000 customers in 2023, 5,000 in 2025 and more than 6,000 in over 100 countries by April 2026, per Magnet.Magnet releases, Aug 2023, Jun 2025, Apr 21, 2026
- 3One vendor from phone access to courtMagnet now covers access (Graykey, Verakey), analysis (Axiom), child abuse media (Griffeye), video checks (Verify) and case review (Magnet One).Magnet User Summit 2026 post, Apr 20, 2026
Every round, and what its terms give away.
Magnet Forensics is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $1.30B
- latest valuation, Take-private buyout Apr 6
- $99M
- annual revenue, as of Dec 31
- +41%
- growth, as reported
2022 net income $3.7M; adjusted EBITDA $21.3M (company measure); cash $146.8M. Last public figures, before the Grayshift merger.
Magnet Q4 2022 results, Mar 9, 2023- Apr 6Take-private buyout$1.30B at $1.30BLed by Thoma Bravo (Morpheus Purchaser Inc.). About 100% of the company, if all new sharesC$1.8B equity value (about US$1.3B). C$44.25 cash for public holders; founders and Balsillie got C$39 and rolled 55% of their shares.Thoma Bravo releases, Jan 20 and Apr 6, 2023; SiliconANGLE, Jan 23, 2023
- May 3IPO (TSX: MAGT)Led by BMO Capital Markets and Canaccord GenuityC$115.1M gross at C$17 a share, 6,773,500 shares. Trading began Apr 28, 2021.Magnet release via Newswire, May 3, 2021
- Buyout price vs the marketC$44.25 was 15% above the last close and 41% above the 90-day average price. An outside valuation put fair value at C$36.50 to C$48.75.Thoma Bravo release, Jan 20, 2023Clear
- How much of the company the deal soldAll of it. Magnet became a wholly owned subsidiary. Founders Jad Saliba and Adam Belsher and Jim Balsillie rolled about C$628M of shares into the buyer as minority holders.Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023Flag
- Time since the last capital eventAbout 3 years 7 months since the April 2023 close. No sale, recap or new investor reported in company news.Magnet news page, checked Nov 3, 2026Open
- Debt-heavy or unusual termsHow the buyout was financed has not been published. We found no report of loans to Magnet or Grayshift.Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023; searched Nov 3, 2026Open
- New outside money or insiders only?New outside owner. Morgan Stanley ran a process that reached eight other possible buyers, per the special committee. Holder Nellore Capital opposed the price.BetaKit, Apr 10, 2023Clear
- Employee liquidityPublic shares were cashed out in 2023. No staff tender or equity plan terms have been published since.Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 monthsNone found in company news or press searches. The careers board had 37 open roles on Nov 3, 2026.Lever board and news search, Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
Taken private by Thoma Bravo on Apr 6, 2023 and delisted from the TSX; no relisting reported
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Neutral
Founders took less cash and kept a stake.
Thoma Bravo release, Jan 20, 2023Jad Saliba, Adam Belsher and Jim Balsillie took C$39 a share, below the C$44.25 public price, and rolled 55% of their shares into the buyer.
The founders still own part of the company, which ties them to Thoma Bravo's eventual exit.
- 02Neutral
Reported: Magnet first tried to buy Grayshift.
The Logic, Jan 20, 2023The Logic, citing unnamed sources, reported Magnet planned to buy Grayshift but was outbid by Thoma Bravo in July 2022, which then bought Magnet too.
The merger joined two partners that already sold Graykey together. Integration is now three years in.
- 03Watch
Forbes says ICE bought Graykey Preserve.
Forbes Colombia (Thomas Brewster), Oct 8, 2026Forbes reported, from records, that ICE acquired Preserve, which stops an iPhone's auto restart to buy time for a warrant. Two clients said NDAs with Magnet kept them from answering records requests.
Work for immigration and police agencies draws privacy criticism. Some candidates will weigh that.
- 04Watch
Access depends on phone makers' flaws.
MacRumors citing 404 Media, Nov 19, 2024Leaked documents reported by 404 Media showed Graykey had only partial access to most iPhones on iOS 18 in late 2024.
Each Apple or Google security update can cut access until researchers find a new route. That is why Magnet hires vulnerability researchers.
- 05Good
Four buys since the buyout.
Magnet releases, Aug 2023 to Apr 21, 2026Griffeye (child abuse media, Aug 2023), Medex (video authenticity, Aug 2024), Dark Circuit Labs (exploit research, Jun 2025) and V2 Forensics (drones, Apr 2026). Prices not disclosed.
A classic private equity buy-and-build. It widens the product set ahead of a sale or listing.
- 06Watch
Behind Cellebrite on federal cloud approval.
Magnet release, May 7, 2026; SAM Search, May 2026Magnet Review reached FedRAMP High In Process status on May 7, 2026. Cellebrite said it won FedRAMP High authorization on May 6, 2026.
Federal agencies need this to buy cloud tools. Until Magnet is authorized, Cellebrite has an edge in that market.
- 07Neutral
A new President on the team page.
Magnet team page, checked Nov 3, 2026; Magnet release, Apr 21, 2026Magnet's team page lists John Curry as President and Adam Belsher as CEO. David Miles, a Grayshift co-founder, was quoted as President in April 2026. Jad Saliba is listed as Co-Founder and Board Member.
We found no announcement of the change. Roles at the top have shifted since the merger.
- 08Watch
Remote for most roles, not all.
Magnet Lever board, checked Nov 3, 2026Of 37 roles on Magnet's Lever board on Nov 3, 2026, 26 were marked remote and 11 hybrid, including Waterloo finance roles and a cleared role in Chantilly, Virginia.
Check each posting. Security clearance and federal work can tie a role to a site.
Engineering is paid 23% under market.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Magnet Forensics?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Closed to outside agents. Its own agentic AI runs inside the product; no MCP server, public API docs or llms.txt found.
Still Remote read- YesIts own AI agentIntelligent Insights in Magnet Review uses large language models and an agentic workflow to suggest leads, with citations. Magnet says it makes leads, not conclusions.Magnet release, Apr 21, 2026
- Not foundAn MCP server agents can callNo Magnet Forensics MCP server found. A listed Magnet MCP server belongs to a different company, magnet.run.Glama listing; searched Nov 3, 2026
- MixedPartner integrationsMagnet One Connect is a partner hub using managed APIs for approved third parties such as Siren and Lumyx. No public developer docs found.Magnet User Summit 2026 post, Apr 20, 2026
- Not found
- YesLets AI crawlers read its siterobots.txt allows all user agents with an empty Disallow and names no AI bots.checked Nov 3, 2026
Where Magnet Forensics puts AI to work.
- 1Testing its own AI in journalsMagnet launched an AI Research Lab on Oct 27, 2026. Its first study, in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, found Magnet Verify's expert system scored 91% on media checks vs 69% for 20 trained examiners.Forensic Focus, Oct 27, 2026
- 2Hiring to automate back-office workAn open AI and Automation Engineer role asks for experience applying Claude, Copilot or Gemini to business workflows across Salesforce, NetSuite and Microsoft 365.Magnet Lever posting, checked Nov 3, 2026
More listings than on Sep 7, led by sales.
What has to be true for $1.3 billion to hold?
The starting revenue is Magnet Forensics's own reported figure. A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
At 14x, Magnet Forensics needs $93 million of revenue to be worth $1.3 billion. Your world gets there with $183 million, so the next round likely prices above the last.
$100,000 of equity valued at the $1.30B Take-private buyout price would be worth about $196,975 on paper in this world, before dilution from new rounds, taxes and vesting. Private shares only turn into cash at a sale, an IPO or a tender offer.
A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023; Magnet Q4 2022 resultsThe signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindMore evidence lives on devices.
Magnet now covers vehicles (Autokey) and drones (V2 Forensics) as well as phones and computers.
- TailwindCourts need proof media is real.
Magnet bought Medex in 2024 to detect deepfakes and AI-made video, and now publishes peer-reviewed tests of its tools.
- HeadwindPhone makers keep closing gaps.
Graykey had only partial access to most iPhones on iOS 18, per leaked documents reported in Nov 2024.
- HeadwindA listed rival moved first on federal cloud.
Cellebrite won FedRAMP High a day before Magnet announced its In Process status.
Where Magnet Forensics ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
Thoma Bravo sells Magnet or brings in a new owner by 2031.
Likely 72%M&AThe buyout closed in April 2023 and no exit has been reported. Four add-on deals since then build a bigger story for a buyer.
Thoma Bravo release, Apr 6, 2023; Magnet releases to Apr 2026 - 2
Magnet relists on a stock exchange by 2031.
Long shot 16%IPOIt was listed on the TSX from 2021 to 2023, so a return is possible. No filing or plan has been reported, and a sale to another firm is the more common exit.
Magnet IPO release, May 2021; searched Nov 3, 2026 - 3
Magnet Review wins FedRAMP High authorization by 2028.
Likely 72%RevenueIt reached In Process status in May 2026 with a federal sponsor. It also bought Dark Circuit Labs for its US facility clearance.
Magnet release, May 7, 2026; Jun 17, 2025 - 4
Most Magnet cases use AI summaries before an examiner reads raw data.
Likely 72%AIIntelligent Search is live and Intelligent Insights is in early access. Magnet is publishing peer-reviewed tests to make AI output hold up in court.
Magnet release, Apr 21, 2026 - 5
Magnet and Cellebrite still split most of the police phone forensics market in 2031.
Coin flip 50%CompetitionBoth sell access, analysis and cloud review. Encryption gains by Apple and Google could shrink what either can unlock.
MacRumors, Nov 2024; SAM Search, May 2026
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 4, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.