Pemba Capital Companions has continued its push into the skilled providers sector with the acquisition of a 50 p.c stake in cybersecurity advisory and providers supplier ctrl:cyber.
Ctrl was established in Melbourne in 2017 by CEO Steve Williams, and has since grown to a workforce of greater than 60 specialists offering a spread of providers protecting superior 24/7 menace monitoring, penetration testing, and governance, danger & compliance advisory for greater than 300 purchasers.
Pemba, which gears its investments in direction of high-growth, founder-led companies, has been cultivating its relationship with Ctrl since shortly after its founding, and cited the agency’s dedication to innovation, high-performance tradition, and distinctive deal with high-value subscription providers as being of explicit attraction.
“We first met Pemba seven years in the past, and from the very starting their founder-led, buy-and-build method resonated with our personal values,” Williams stated. “It’s uncommon to discover a companion that not solely understands your imaginative and prescient however has the persistence and belief to attend for the precise second to affix forces.”
Williams informed the AFR that with Pemba’s backing, Ctrl was now aiming to turn into the main cybersecurity supplier within the A/NZ area inside three years, with the preliminary deal with increasing into Sydney and Perth and over to New Zealand and a broader aim of elevating the proportion of its subscription-based revenues from 50 p.c to 70 p.c inside two years.
“With like-minded govt management groups, we’ll take top-spot out there,” the brand new companions declared in a press launch. “Combining Pemba’s earlier success inside cyber and Ctrl’s experience crafted over a decade-long interval, we is not going to solely speed up progress through a focused acquisition technique however improve natural progress by way of compounding an already profitable technique.”
Pemba Capital Companions
Pemba has affordable grounds to really feel assured in its bold bid to overcome the Australian cyber market, as Ctrl isn’t the personal fairness agency’s first foray into the sector, having beforehand merged its belongings Shelde and Revolution IT to kind Ampion in 2020 – which it then on-sold to know-how consulting big Wipro for nearly US$120 million the next 12 months.
In the meantime, the agency has continued to focus on the skilled providers sector over the previous twelve or so months, together with an funding into ESG administration consultancy Rennie on the finish of 2023 together with its double strike for Victorian accountancy Stannards and water consultancy Sequana in September. Pemba-backed defence-tech agency Aurizn additionally just lately acquired the Australian arm of Pacific Aerospace Consulting.
The M&A arms of Alvarez & Marsal, Ernst & Younger and L.E.Ok. Consulting featured amongst Pemba’s advisors on its newest deal, whereas Ctrl was supported by DFK Nugents and KHQ Legal professionals and enterprise advisers.
