I-TRACING and Bridewell, the leaders in their respective markets of France and the UK, are joining forces to create the independent European cybersecurity services champion.
The partnership is being supported by the founders and managing partners of I-TRACING, Theodore Vrangos, Michel Vujicic, Laurent Besset, with co-control investors Oakley Capital and Eurazeo, together with Anthony Young, Bridewell’s founder, and the management teams of both companies. Sagard NewGen will also reinvest in the transaction.
This alliance brings together the market leaders in two of the largest markets in Europe thereby creating a European cybersecurity one-stop services powerhouse, to protect enterprise and mid-market clients globally at a time of rapidly escalating cyber risk. The transaction is subject to regulatory clearances.
I-TRACING and Bridewell share a focus on providing the highest quality of service, customer satisfaction and technical ability. Their joint vision of creating a European leading cybersecurity services company, with local expertise and accreditations, ensures clients get the highest level of specialism and service on their doorstep but with the ability to tap into a global network.
I-TRACING was founded in Paris in 2005, and is the French leading managed cybersecurity services provider (‘MSSP’), addressing all the most critical needs of its blue-chip clients. Benefiting from its one-stop-shop positioning, the company’s strong differentiation edge is created by its unique security operations centre (‘SOC’) managed services offering, protecting complex environments on a 24/7 basis, leveraging an integrated international ‘follow-the-sun’ operating model. I-TRACING operates in France, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Switzerland and employs over 700 cybersecurity experts globally.
Bridewell was founded in Reading in 2013 and has quickly grown to be the leading independent cybersecurity services company in the UK. Bridewell provides managed and professional cybersecurity services across Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) environments, from architecture and design, governance, risk and compliance, fully managed security operations centre, penetration testing and data privacy, with a strong differentiation edge towards Critical National Infrastructure and other highly regulated and complex enterprise clients. Bridewell has operations in the UK and the USA and employs over 300 employees globally.
Under common ownership, the combination of I-TRACING and Bridewell will create the leading pure-play cybersecurity services group in Europe, with the shared ambition of further accelerating growth and continuing to scale across Europe and the USA, capitalising on its positioning to continue to attract the best talent in the cybersecurity sector.
I-TRACING and Bridewell will be able to leverage the extensive global networks, sector expertise and financing capabilities of its investors Oakley Capital, Eurazeo and Sagard to deliver this strategy, including support with further M&A.
As the two companies share the same entrepreneurial philosophy and human-centric values, numerous opportunities are anticipated as the businesses work more closely together, in areas such as international mobility for consultants, addressing new and existing Fortune 500 customers worldwide, sharing I-TRACING’s established follow-the-sun MSSP operations, sharing Bridewell’s knowledge and expertise in CNI security, Threat Intelligence and OT, building common expertise and services for AI security, building further in North America – where Bridewell is present in USA and where I-TRACING has more than 50 engineers and analysts in Canada – and expanding further in Asia.
GCP invested in Bridewell through a minority partnership transaction in March 2021, to support Anthony Young and Scott Nicholson and the management team to deliver on their ambitious growth plans. GCP’s technology services specialism and partnership approach has supported Bridewell to significantly invest in leadership, talent, systems and processes alongside refining the GTM proposition, developing proprietary technology, delivering strategic M&A and establishing international operations in the USA.
Bridewell Founder and CEO Anthony Young said: “Bridewell has had fantastic growth over the last 12 years to become a leader in the UK cybersecurity market and we are now all really excited about growing internationally and being able to support more companies around the world at a time of increased international tensions. I-TRACING and Bridewell, as clear leaders in their markets, backed by the ambitions of Oakley Capital, Eurazeo and Sagard, will ensure we are able to protect more organisations and create a clear leader in the cybersecurity space. I would also like to thank GCP for their invaluable support over the last four years. They understood our business, and their focus on partnership, sustainable ambitious growth and people development has aligned perfectly with our culture as we scaled.”
Ravi Monteiro, Partner, GCP, said: “The growth of Bridewell over the past four years has been exceptional. It has been a pleasure working with Anthony, Scott, Ruth, Martin, Ben and all the Bridewell team as they continued to build a fantastic business with an incredible culture of going above and beyond for employees and customers alike. We are proud to have supported Bridewell in becoming one of the UK’s leading cybersecurity services businesses, well set for continued growth.”
Richard Shaw, Partner, GCP, added: “We thank all the Bridewell team for their outstanding performance and are delighted to have been able to work in partnership to support the business with our range of strategic growth initiatives tailored to fast growth knowledge economy businesses. Joining forces with I-TRACING, will now enable Bridewell to take its leading cybersecurity services proposition to the world stage and we wish the combined group the very best of future success.”
Theodore-Michel Vrangos, Co-Founder and President, I-TRACING said: “It is a great honour to welcome Anthony into our partnership. Bridewell as well as I-TRACING are huge success stories. We are sharing common human values, not only professional but also personal, and we all have this tremendous ambition of building the number one cybersecurity independent services group in the world”
Peter Dubens, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Oakley Capital said: “Cyber security services has been a sector we have been focused on for many years, due to its attractive, long-term fundamental growth drivers. We are therefore pleased to now have this opportunity to bring together Bridewell with our current partners I-TRACING, to create this leading, premium, pure-play cyber security services platform. We are looking forward to working alongside Theodore and Anthony for this next phase in their development”
Pierre Meignen, Partner, Head of Eurazeo Small-Mid Buyout said: “Eurazeo has built a strong partnership with the I-TRACING team over the past four years, and supported the group in its journey to form a European cybersecurity pure-player. We believe I-TRACING and Bridewell share a very compatible DNA as leading cybersecurity consulting and MSSPs in their respective countries. With this transaction, we are very proud to become a reference shareholder of the leading independent European cybersecurity pure player. We are happy to welcome Bridewell’s founder and management and look forward to next chapter.”
About Bridewell
Bridewell is the UK’s leading cybersecurity services business, offering strategic cybersecurity consulting (including OT security, cloud security, security architecture, engineering and GRC), managed security services (including 24×7 MDR (IT & OT), threat intelligence and digital forensics), penetration testing, and data privacy services. Bridewell is one of the UK’s most highly accredited cybersecurity services specialists and has strong relationships with industry leaders like Microsoft and Forescout.
For more information on Bridewell please visit bridewell.com
About I-TRACING
I-TRACING is a pure-player of managed security services provider offering a complete portfolio of services, from proactive protection to incident response and cybersecurity solutions deployment and management, for more than 450 blue-chip customers in France and beyond. I-TRACING offers end-to-end cybersecurity 24/7 services such as SOC, CERT and Incident Response based on a fully owned Follow-the-Sun organization. I-TRACING’s MSSP services are provided by more than 700 internal consultants, analysts and engineers based in fully owned subsidiaries in France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, Canada, China and beyond.
I-TRACING reported c.150 million euros in revenue for 2024.
For more details: www.i-tracing.com
About Sagard NewGen
Sagard NewGen supports the development of leaders in the Technology and Healthcare sectors. We finance expansion strategies of European, profitable companies with sales of up to €200m that share a DNA of innovation and sustainability, through majority or minority equity investments.
Sagard NewGen is part of Sagard’s international platform, which has assets under management of over $27bn across 6 strategies covering the full range of financing needs of growth companies. Leveraging flexible capital, an entrepreneurial culture and a global network, Sagard provides management teams with tailor-made support, a high value-added ecosystem and international reach, with 7 offices in Europe, North America and Abu Dhabi.
For more information: https://www.sagard.com/newgen/
About Oakley
Oakley Capital is the partner of choice for entrepreneurs and management teams with the ambition to build successful, global businesses. With a diverse team of almost 200 professionals across five locations including London, Munich, Milan and Madrid, we back high-growth, mid-market companies across Europe. We have deep sector-expertise across Technology, Consumer, Education and Business Services, and a track-record of supporting businesses accelerate their growth with proven value creation strategies, including M&A, digitisation, talent management and internationalisation. Our unique origination capabilities help unearth attractive investment opportunities yielding consistently strong returns for all stakeholders.
About Eurazeo
Eurazeo is a leading European investment group with €35.5 billion in diversified assets under management, including €25.2 billion on behalf of institutional and retail clients through its private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure strategies. The Group supports more than 600 mid-market companies, leveraging the commitment of its 400-strong workforce, its in-depth sector expertise, its privileged access to global markets through 13 offices across Europe, Asia and the United States, and its responsible approach to value creation based on growth. The company’s institutional and family shareholding structure, and its solid financial structure, ensure its long-term viability.
Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Luxembourg, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and São Paulo.
Eurazeo is listed on Euronext Paris.
ISIN: FR000121121 – Bloomberg: RF FP – Reuters: EURA.PA.
About Growth Capital Partners
Growth Capital Partners (GCP) was founded in 1999 and has a proven track record of building genuine investment partnerships with founders in ambitious, highly specialist businesses that power the Knowledge Economy. With deep expertise in the Technology and Specialist Services sectors, GCP is currently investing from GCP Fund V and bringing valuable strategic support, tools for scaling, and extensive experience in helping people-driven businesses to unlock innovation, drive long term sustainable growth, and build the businesses of the future.
