Assessing a Potential Acquisition Target in the Cybersecurity Space for a B2B Growth Equity Team

Assessing a Potential Acquisition Target in the Cybersecurity Space for a B2B Growth Equity Team

December 7, 2021
December 7, 2021

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Client and project overview

  • A leading European B2B Growth Equity team raised a c.€400m fund to invest in fast-growing technology companies in Europe. This helped them scale and attain leadership positions in their markets
  • Our client was considering entering an auction process for an investment in a French cybersecurity service provider and asked AMR (acquired by Stax in 2022) to provide pre-ex LOI support to help forge its conviction on the business’ potential


Key objectives

  • For this market and industry mapping project, we provided our client with fundamental SOCaaS/MSS market understanding to support it in forging a conviction on the deal, focusing on:
  • The SOCaaS/MSSP competitive environment in Europe
  • The core target markets today and tomorrow in France
  • The achievability of strong gross margin for a scaled SOCaaS operation


Highlights of methodology

We combined its knowledge of the cybersecurity landscape, a comprehensive desk research programme and interviews with experts to produce:

  • Competitive SOCaaS mapping and assessment of provider stage of development and strategy
  • Target addressable market definition and sizing by segment
  • Assessment of best-in-class gross margin potential and preliminary view on achievability


Results

  • Through research, we demonstrated the target had competent tech compared to rivals and the potential to address a large market with strong gross margins.


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