Independents join forces to establish cyber consultancy Sekuro
Four independent IT consultancies from Sydney – Privasec, Solista, CXO Security and Naviro – have come together to form Sekuro, which hopes to take on the big players in cybersecurity.
A new challenger has emerged in the Australian cybersecurity consulting market with the merger of four independent IT consultancies from Sydney; Privasec, Solista, Naviro and CXO Security, which boast combined revenues pushing $70 million and a headcount of close to 100 across the country. The new entity, Sekuro, aims to take on the likes of Accenture and the Big Four and compete for larger clients through an end-to-end offering.
Indeed, Robert McAdam, the former CXO Security boss who will lead Sekuro as inaugural CEO, threw some immediate shade on the bigger players when speaking to the AFR on the merger announcement. “The big four consultancies are acquiring smaller, well-established but uncompetitive, or market-tired, cybersecurity businesses to bolster their capability in terms of people and processes,” McAdam stated.
To the contrary, Sekuro says that each of its founding entities was chosen for its “quality, depth of skill and temperament” and was specialised in different areas of cyber strategy, combining to form an end-to-end player which could now bid on client projects previously beyond the scope and reach of the individual companies. This will span the cyber defence journey, from initial assessment through to capability building and network monitoring.
CXO Security was founded in 2017 to support clients with cyber-governance, advisory, compliance, penetration testing and incident response services. Privasec and Solista, both established around 2013, provide similar offerings, the latter with cloud architecture and digital CX capabilities, while Naviro (2008) is a specialist cybersecurity, cloud and digital transformation recruitment advisory. Their various founders will take up leadership roles with Sekuro.
The new company – formed through a traditional M&A process but as a pure merger sans typical buy-outs – is also backing itself in, with all four of its founding companies having previously rejected what McAdam describes as some very attractive private equity and acquisition offers from well-known players in the Australian market. The aim now is to establish a foothold, before offering up 20 percent of its holdings in an IPO on the ASX later next year.
“Today marks a pivotal moment in our journey!” said COO Romain Rallu. “In a time of rapid change, where big funds – mostly foreign – are snapping up Australian cyber security firms, we are very proud to have created our own path allowing us to go into hyper-growth whilst staying true to our values, people and clients, as well as to the care and quality that defined our four legacy brands and will continue to underpin Sekuro.”
In 2019, a group of twelve cyber security firms joined forces (with the backing of private equity) to establish CyberCX, which today has over 400 staff across Australia.
