Eurazeo’s small-mid buyout team has signed an exclusivity agreement with the aim of investing in I-TRACING alongside the company’s management and founders Theodore-Michel Vrangos and Laurent Charvériat, who would collectively hold 49 per cent of the company’s equity after completion of the transaction.
Keensight Capital, minority financial shareholder in the French cybersecurity specialist since 2017, would sell its entire stake while Sagard NewGen would invest as a minority shareholder in a holding company controlled by Eurazeo.
The transaction would value I-TRACING at EUR165 million. Eurazeo would become an anchor investor of the group by investing around EUR65 million.
I-TRACING was founded in 2005 and offers a comprehensive range of high-value-added services to secure its clients’ IT systems: consultancy, audits and pen tests, integration of diversified software solutions and associated managed services, identity and access management, operation of SOCs (Security Operations Centers) as well as deployment of cyberattack response units (CERTs or Computer Emergency Response Teams).
Headquartered in Paris, I-TRACING employs more than 285 experts who help their clients (CAC40, SBF120 and medium-sized companies) with all of their cybersecurity needs. The company also has subsidiaries in Montreal, Hong Kong and London, enabling the group to offer managed services and support on a 24/7 basis. In 2020, I-TRACING generated nearly EUR50 million of revenue, up around 40 per cent vs 2019, despite the Covid-19 crisis. The company targets around EUR70 million revenues in 2021.
Eurazeo’s small-mid buyout team, Sagard NewGen and I-TRACING’s management share the ambition of building a leading European provider of cybersecurity services. This would entail an acceleration of the company’s growth through further expansion, capitalising on its high level of expertise as well as the rapid growth of its market and underlying demand. The new chapter is also aiming at pursuing an active buy-and-build strategy, with several targets already identified, as well as supporting I-TRACING’ clients internationally.
Pierre Meignen, Member of Eurazeo PME’s Executive Board, says: “We are delighted to be involved in I-TRACING’s project. Eurazeo ambitions to provide long-term support to Théodore-Michel Vrangos and Laurent Charvériat in their growth strategy and contribute to the emergence of a European leading independent provider of cybersecurity services. Further than its financial support, Eurazeo would bring the expertise and support of its experienced teams located in 10 countries around the world and its international business network. We can’t wait to actively back the group in a new active phase of its development.”
