UK cybersecurity firm Darktrace has acquired Cybersprint in a cash and equity deal valuing the Dutch attack surface management company at €47.5m (£39.6m).
Cybersprint is based in the Hague, Netherlands, and provides real-time cybersecurity insights for businesses and detects potential security risks.
Darktrace said it will integrate Cybersprint’s attack surface management tools with its own detection and response products.
The deal is expected to close on 1 March 2022 and will see Darktrace acquire Cybersprint for 75% in cash and the remaining 25% in equity.
The total transaction value is worth more than 12 times the annual recurring revenue of Cybersprint.
Cambridge-based Darktrace will also gain a second European R&D centre via the acquisition, which it said will be used to support its UK software engineers.
Cybersprint’s ethical hacking and real-time internet data insight will be used to expand Darktrace’s existing detect and respond products. The company said it will accelerate its entry into the proactive AI cybersecurity market.
“Bringing inside-out and outside-in visibility together is critical and having access to the robust, rich, real-time external dataset combined with Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI means that customers get a holistic view of prioritised cyber risks to harden the parts of their organisation that are most vulnerable,” said Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson.
Pieter Jansen, CEO of Cybersprint, said: “We believe attackers never sleep and operate without scope. When we began conversations with Darktrace, we felt an instant connection on vision, culture and technology.
“That’s why we are looking forward to joining Darktrace and working together to accelerate state-of-the-art innovations to make organisations more cyber secure.”
The acquisition comes just under a year after Darktrace became a public company, listing on the London Stock Exchange in April 2021 with an opening valuation of £1.7bn.
Its market cap has since increased to £2.47bn in a sign that investors are unfazed by Darktrace’s ties to disgraced tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who was a founding investor of the cybersecurity firm and recently lost a multi-billion pound fraud case over the sale of software company Autonomy to HP in 2011.
Darktrace’s successful IPO and subsequent acquisition of Cybersprint follow a record year for UK cybersecurity investment, with companies receiving more than £1bn in capital in 2021.
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