I-TRACING is entering into exclusive discussions with Eurazeo and Sagard Newgen to welcome Oakley Capital as a reference shareholder

Given our rapid growth and ambition to expand our international presence, Oakley Capital, a major European investment fund, is entering into exclusive discussions to invest alongside Eurazeo and Sagard, our historical investors.  

A new milestone in our development

Our ambition, to build the European champion in cybersecurity services

Supporting our growth and expansion

By welcoming this new renowned shareholder, we would take a significant step towards fulfilling our goal of becoming the uncontested leader in cybersecurity services in Europe. Oakley Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard would provide us with the resources and expertise needed to accelerate our growth, make targeted acquisitions, and expand globally. By reinvesting with the new shareholders, our founders and management team would reiterate their commitment, demonstrating their confidence in the future of the company. 

A highly dynamic market

The dynamism of the cybersecurity market and our leading position in France and Europe would be underscored by this operation. Our cybersecurity team boasts more than 700 experts, a growing international presence, and 450 corporate clients, many with an international footprint, who rely on us to guarantee their cybersecurity daily. 

A shared aspiration

Becoming the next unicorn of cybersecurity services  

Our management team, along with investment funds Oakley Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard Newgen, would be dedicated to building the European champion in cybersecurity services. We would share the commitment to accelerating our growth, leveraging our position as a pure player with our key account clients, and attracting the top talent in the industry. 

Extending our horizons

With this new equity entry, we would be able to rely on the vast global networks of Oakley Capital, Eurazeo and Sagard, as well as their sector expertise and financing capabilities, to deploy an ambitious expansion strategy. A proactive external growth approach would be in place to support this new chapter, with identified acquisitions in specific cyber areas of expertise and complementary geographical areas.  

The management of I-TRACING, Oakley Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard NewGen would invest more than 420 million euros, subject to French regulatory authorities’ approval. Our valuation would be more than 500 million euros based on the terms of this agreement.

Enhancing our expertise and providing premium services  

Better meeting the cybersecurity challenges of our clients 

Since 2005, our clients benefit from our one-stop-shop positioning for all their cybersecurity challenges: cyber defense, threat detection and incident response (MDR) services, identity and access management, cloud security, data protection, auditing, and many more. Our premium offer of SOC (Security Operations Center) managed services 24/7 protects our clients’ complex environments through an integrated international operating model “follow-the-sun”, and the largest level 2 and 3 SOC team in France.

Strategic expansion to serve our customers

With our headquarters in Paris and already 700 cybersecurity experts, we continue our international expansion with subsidiaries in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This expansion would allow us to better support our customers internationally and deliver our services effectively.

In just three years, we have evolved significantly, more than doubling our workforce and achieving strong organic growth. This includes targeted acquisitions in the areas of identity and access management and cloud security. The latter complements our service offering and geographical footprint, particularly in German-speaking areas (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), with the opening of an office in Switzerland in 2023. Recognized by our clients for our technical expertise and best-in-class teams, we have reached a critical size. We are renowned as the trusted partner for many large international companies, committed to securing their ecosystems in their digital transformation.  

Our shareholders’ insights 

Accelerating our international growth journey   

“We believe that there is significant untapped potential for further organic and external growth to create a leading MSSP in Europe. The combination of Oakley Capital and Eurazeo as investors with significant complementarity and alignment would enable us to accelerate our international growth journey while ensuring we can sustain our values, the quality of our expertise, and the commitment to our clients while preserving an attractive environment for our talented teams.” 

Théodore Vrangos, I-TRACING co-Founder and President

Unrivalled technical capabilities  

“I-TRACING is a business we have followed for many years. We are pleased to now have this opportunity to partner with Théodore and his fellow co-founders on the next phase in the company’s history. The attractive drivers of growth in this market are structural and long term, and we believe I-TRACING will continue to prosper as the partner of choice for blue-chip companies across Europe, leveraging its strong reputation and unrivalled technical capability.” 

Peter Dubens, Oakley Capital Founder and Managing Partner

Building a European pure player of cybersecurity services  

“We are proud of the strong partnership we have built with the I-TRACING team over the last three years, confirmed by the company positioning as the leading independent MSSP in France, and would be thrilled to renew this collaboration while welcoming Oakley Capital onboard. We believe I-TRACING’s next journey, with the aim of building the European cybersecurity pure player, is a perfect fit with our Eurazeo Small-Mid Buyout strategy. We can’t wait to continue to actively back the team in this new phase of development.”

Pierre Meignen, Partner & Head of Eurazeo Small-mid buyout 

Exceptional performance rewarded

“We congratulate the entire I-TRACING team for their exceptional work and the impressive performance delivered over the past three years and thank them for the trust they have placed in Sagard NewGen. We would be delighted to extend this partnership alongside Eurazeo and Oakley Capital and to continue to contribute our sector expertise and commercial networks to the team.”

Agnès Huyghues Despointes, Partner, Sagard NewGen 

Courbevoie, June 11th, 2024

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