Eurazeo, through its Small-Mid Buyout team1, together with the Management team of I-TRACING and Sagard NewGen announce today they have entered into exclusive discussions to welcome Oakley Capital as a reference shareholder of I-TRACING, the French leading independent cybersecurity services pure-player. Eurazeo has been supporting the company as anchor investor since 2021 and would continue the next journey as part of a co-control framework with Oakley Capital. Sagard NewGen would also be reinvesting as minority investor in the new deal. The founders and management team of I-TRACING would consolidate their shareholding in the company, with ~80 managers and employees aiming at substantially reinvesting as part of the transaction. Additionally, this new milestone in the development of I-TRACING would be an opportunity to open the share capital to more employees of the group. Completion of the transaction would remain subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
I-TRACING would be valued more than €500 million as part of this transaction. Eurazeo’s invested capital would approximately yield a cash-on-cash multiple of 3.0x and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 38%.
I-TRACING was founded in 2005 and is the French leading managed cybersecurity services pure-player (MSSP) addressing all the most critical needs of its blue-chip clients in the Enterprise and Midmarket segments. Benefiting from a one-stop-shop positioning (CyberDefense, Managed Detection & Response services, Cloud Security, Data protection, Audit…), the company’s strong differentiation edge also relies on its unique and premium SOC managed services offering (Security Operation Center), protecting complex environments on a 24/7 basis, leveraging an integrated international “follow-the-sun” operating model and the largest level 2 & level 3 SOC team in France. Headquartered in Paris, I-TRACING employs more than 700 cybersecurity experts with additional subsidiaries in Canada, Hong-Kong, Malaysia, China, Switzerland, and the UK to support its clients internationally.
Over the last three years, I-TRACING more than doubled in size and targets ~€150m in revenue for 2024, thanks to a strong and steady ~30% organic growth per annum accelerated by add-ons conducted in Identity & Access Management and Cloud Security adjacencies to complement its services offering and geographical footprint (presence in DACH with a Swiss office since 2023) for future development. Capitalizing on long-lasting & robust market drivers, premium technical proficiency and best-in-class teams, I-TRACING has reached a critical size and is renowned as the trusted partner for most critical and advanced cybersecurity services, committed to securing its clients’ ecosystems in their digital transformation.
The I-TRACING Management team, Oakley Capital, Eurazeo Small-Mid Buyout team and Sagard NewGen share the ambition of further amplifying the group’s growth to build a European cybersecurity services champion, capitalizing on its pure-player positioning at the service of a growing blue-chip clients base and continuing to attract the best talents in the cybersecurity space.
I-TRACING would be able to leverage Oakley Capital, Eurazeo and Sagard’s extensive global networks, sector expertise and financing capabilities to deploy an ambitious expansion strategy. This new chapter would also be aiming at pursuing an active buy-and-build roadmap, with several acquisitions already identified in complementary offerings and geographies. Eurazeo would be investing approximately €120 million in equity in this new transaction, and more than €420 million together with Oakley Capital, the I-TRACING team and Sagard NewGen. Upon closing of this transaction, approximately €65 million would be returned to Eurazeo balance sheet before reinvestment.
Théodore Vrangos, Chairman, I-TRACING, declared:
“We would be delighted to enter I-TRACING’s new phase of development to write a new chapter in our journey, 19 years after it was founded. Since 2021, we have more than doubled our revenue, continued to structure our offering, strengthened our organization, hired +400 talents, accelerated our international growth and further enlarged our services offering with an acquisition in Cloud Security. We believe that there is significant untapped potential for further organic and external growth to create a leading MSSP at European level. We are fully committed in this exciting next phase of development, aiming at reinvesting significantly alongside our teams and welcoming additional employees in the share capital. We are convinced that the combination of Oakley Capital and Eurazeo as anchor and institutional investors with significant complementarity and alignment would enable us to continue and accelerate our growth journey internationally, accompanying our major French and European clients in all their cybersecurity needs, while ensuring to maintain our values and mindset, the quality of our expertise and the commitment to our clients in an attractive environment for our talented teams.”
Pierre Meignen, Partner & Head of Eurazeo Small-mid buyout, said:
“We are proud of the strong partnership we have built with the I-TRACING’s team over the last three years confirmed by the company positioning as the leading independent MSSP in France and would be thrilled to renew this collaboration while welcoming Oakley Capital onboard. We believe I-TRACING’s next journey, with the aim of building the European cybersecurity pure-player, is a perfect fit with our Eurazeo Small-Mid Buyout strategy. We can’t wait to continue to actively back the team in this new phase of development.”
Peter Dubens, Oakley Capital Founder and Managing Partner, declared:
“I-TRACING is a business we have admired for many years. We are delighted to now have this opportunity to partner with Théodore and his fellow co-founders on this exciting next phase in the company's history. The attractive drivers of growth in this market are structural and long term and we believe I-TRACING will continue to prosper as the partner of choice for blue chip companies across Europe, leveraging its unrivalled technical capability.”
Agnès Huyghues Despointes, Partner, Sagard NewGen, stated:
“We congratulate the I-TRACING’s entire team for their exceptional work and the impressive performance delivered over the past three years and thank them for the trust they have placed in Sagard NewGen. We would be delighted to extend this partnership alongside Eurazeo and Oakley Capital and to continue to contribute our sector expertise and commercial networks to the team.”
