London 7th November, 2016
C5 Capital Limited (“C5”), the technology investment firm focusing on the cyber security, data and cloud computing sectors, today announces that it has acquired ITC Secure Networking (“ITC”) for £24 million. The acquisition marks the fund’s fourth investment following its investments in Metrasens, a UK based sensor company, Omada, a provider of identity and access management technology, and Balabit, a software company focusing on real-time user behaviour analytics for the identification of internal and external attackers.
ITC was established in 1995 by CEO Tom Millar and is headquartered in Docklands London. It provides organisations with assured IT and specialises in providing its NetSure360° managed infrastructure and security services (“MSS”) to some of the best known companies in the UK. The company designs and integrates secure IT network infrastructures that enhance performance, safeguard information and simplify management – Delivering Secure Performance on AnyDevice, AnyWhere, AnyTime. Along with the entire management team, Tom Millar will remain with the business as CEO and will continue to be a major shareholder.
ITC’s powerful solutions have led to it winning and retaining a wide range of mid, large-cap and FTSE 100 clients including British American Tobacco Plc, ABInBev, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), BT and Orange, as well as a number of companies operating in highly regulated markets such as CLS Services, Mizuho, ICAP, and Old Mutual. ITC, which currently employs 100 people, has continued to experience rapid growth, increasing its revenues more than 20% year-on-year in the last three years. In the last financial year the company achieved revenues of £14.5 million.
The acquisition is the first step of C5’s broader strategy to consolidate the fast-growing and fragmented IT MSS market in Europe and provide outsourced cyber security services. C5 has identified ITC, an established UK provider of MSS with a broad technology platform and strong product roadmap, as its first acquisition and the foundational investment in this strategy.
The cyber security market continues to grow at a rapid pace driven by advanced IT threats that are growing in frequency, sophistication and in severity. The increasing prevalence of cybercrime is thought to cost the UK economy more than £27 billion per annum, with Mckinsey & Company reporting that globally cybercrime has become more profitable than the illegal drugs trade, generating revenue in excess of £2 trillion per annum in 2015. This has forced businesses to significantly expand IT security budgets in order to stay secure and comply with both customer requirements and a growing body of regulatory obligations. Last year the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said that the total realised fraud from compromised business emails was over $3 billion globally.
In Europe, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will soon apply to all companies with over 250 employees, and will allow regulators to apply penalties of up to 4% of the company’s global revenues. These factors are expected to be game-changing for level of investment European businesses are willing to make in their cyber security.
C5 had already started working closely with ITC in advance of completing this transaction to create value for the company and its clients. This will enhance the company’s ability to bring new talent into the business and to continue developing and delivering best in class end-to-end security solutions and services to its customers. ITC will also benefit from C5’s extensive experience investing in cyber security, data analytics, and cloud computing, as well as its deep bench of investment professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders.
ITC were advised by BDO and Stevens & Bolton LLP. C5 was advised by DLA Piper.
Daniel Freeman, Chief Investment Officer of C5 Capital said, “We are delighted to have acquired ITC. We have been highly impressed by the company’s end-to-end security solutions and technology roadmap, as well as the trusted relationships they have built with a blue chip customer base. We are excited to partner with a great founder-led team to support the company’s next phase of growth.”
Tom Millar, CEO of ITC said, “We met many other finance vehicles, but C5 as a specialist investor with deep understanding of cyber security, data and cloud computing sectors. Quite simply C5 added to our business in ways that others couldn’t. C5 Capital bring with them a wealth of experience, insight and a powerful network. They recognised the opportunity and momentum that ITC has. I have no doubt that C5’s involvement will help accelerate this momentum. Critically, given their know-how, they quickly recognised ITC’s ability and passion for delivering our customers best in class end-to-end enterprise security solutions and services. We look forward to working with them.”
About C5
C5 is the leading specialist technology investment company in cybersecurity, big data analytics and cloud computing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It has offices in London, Luxembourg, Johannesburg and Manama. Further information about C5 Capital is available from: www.c5capital.com
If you would like more information, please contact us at: [email protected] or call us on 020 7517 3900.
2 Responses
Comments are closed.