Adarma, an independent security services company, previously ECS Security, has launched following a private management buyout led by David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook with capital from private equity investor Livingbridge.
With over 250 staff and experience spanning over two decades, Adarma provides a broad range of IT security consulting, solution and services with deep expertise in threat management including Security Operations Centre (SOC) design, build and operation. Adarma helps large enterprises to establish operational security capabilities including in-house, co-managed and fully managed SOC environments. The company’s expertise also helps clients to extend existing SOC capabilities to respond to evolving threats and establish a high-value proactive approach to hunting and effectively defending against attackers through addressing control gaps.
From launch, Adarma has an extensive client roster that includes market leading brands from FTSE 250 organisations. In fact, Adarma’s 20 largest clients have a combined annual turnover in excess of GBP150 billion and rely on Adarma’s expertise to help protect sensitive data covering over half of the UK population.
David Calder, MD and co-founder of Adarma, says: “Our decision to create Adarma is part of our desire to focus exclusively on the security space with the aim of becoming the UK market leader for FTSE 250 organisations across a broad range of industries. We are thrilled to receive backing from Livingbridge as we start this new chapter in our journey.”
“Typically, our customer base consists of larger organisations who accept that attacks and breaches are inevitable. Security is a priority at board level as well as within Security Operations departments at these organisations. They realise that it is not a case of if, but when they will face critical security incidents and want to be prepared for this. Our tailored solutions and in-depth engagements with our customers ensure a deeper understanding of their business and requirements, enabling us to deliver improved results for each client.”
Adarma is based on the Latin phrase ‘call to arms’ to represent the security it offers clients and its core founding objective – to make the world a safer place.
Commenting on the investment, Matthew Caffrey, Partner at Livingbridge, says: “Adarma is a very exciting business for us to partner with. We believe there is an opportunity to partner with the team to build a business of real scale in the growing cyber security market. The team have built up a great business and we’re excited to work with them as they grow.”
Simon Sweeney, Director, Strategic Debt Finance at Bank of Scotland, says: “In our increasingly digital world, the need for exceptional cyber security has never been greater for businesses. David, Nathan and the team have positioned themselves perfectly to capitalise on this, with a unique offering that differentiates the business in a crowded market. Ambitious firms like Adarma are a key driver of Scotland’s economy, which is why we’ve committed to lend up to GBP1.6 billion to help Scottish businesses realise their growth ambitions this year.”
Paul Thomson, Group Chief Executive at ECS, says: “Over the last six years ECS’s security business has grown rapidly within the Group into a truly industry leading provider of cyber security services. Strategically it makes sense for ECS Group and Security to separate, allowing both companies to further focus on their core areas of expertise. For Group, this also enables us to expand our core offerings and expertise in digital transformation in our key markets namely, enterprise IT infrastructure and public cloud, as well as investing heavily to build out other areas of the business. We wish David, Nathan, the management team and the staff at Adarma all the very best and anticipate working in close partnership with them moving forwards.”
