Darktrace Reveals
Darktrace data confirms that ransomware attacks continue to pose an extreme risk to the survival of organizations across all market sectors. Darktrace Antigena have worked to allow customers to take proportionate action to tackle all strains of ransomware, both known and unknown.This, while avoiding costly blockages and business interruptions. For this reason, Darktrace has further extended its autonomous response capability to improve server security and enable AI to react against all forms of rapid attacks.
Ransomware is the leading case today. use of autonomous response technology, in a context where organizations face the growing threat of attacks conducted at the speed of machines.
Powered by Cyber AI "self-learning", Darktrace's technology aims to neutralize a series of new cyber attacks taking highly targeted actions, while allowing normal business operations to continue, and isolating only the unusual data encryption activity associated with ransomware.
«The threat of ransomware is the factor key that pushed us to adopt autonomous response technology, ”said Leon Shepherd, Chief Information Officer of Ted Baker, a retail sales company. lio of luxury clothing.
"In fact, every day we find ourselves confronted with ransomware that move too quickly for humans to face them alone: with Darktrace's AI we manage to keep this pace and react independently in a precise and proportionate way ".
«Organizations exist to offer valuable goods and services to customers and citizens; it is terrible for those responsible for it to be in a position to see their business on its knees due to a ransomware attack, "said Nicole Eagan, Chief Strategy Officer, AI Officer at Darktrace.
" The resilience that organizations thanks to the autonomous response, this dynamic changes and allows a rapid and proportionate way of mitigating the risk during a ransomware attack ".
Darktrace filings reveal close relationship with Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital
New filings have revealed the close relationship between Darktrace and tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital, as the cyber security company seeks to become London’s first big new tech listing since Deliveroo.
The initial public offering could value Darktrace at up to £3bn, according to a person close to the deal. But Darktrace’s relationship with Lynch, whose family owns almost a fifth of the company, is likely to attract scrutiny from investors.
Darktrace’s registration document details a close relationship between the company and Invoke, beyond that of a traditional venture-capital backer, which continued until as recently as this month.
The UK-based company warned in Monday’s filings that it may face “potential liability in relation to possible money-laundering offences arising out of its historic funding” by Lynch’s investment firm.
Lynch is fighting extradition to the US over fraud charges related to Hewlett-Packard’s $11bn acquisition in 2011 of Autonomy, the software company he had founded.
Lynch, who has vigorously denied any wrongdoing over the Autonomy deal, helped to create Darktrace in 2013. Invoke, which has funded several UK tech start-ups since it was founded in 2012, financed Darktrace’s first two years of operations.
Lynch stepped down as a Darktrace director in 2018 and chief executive Poppy Gustafsson — who previously worked for Autonomy and Invoke — told the FT on Monday that he had “no involvement in the day to day running of the company”.
But Lynch continued to serve on Darktrace’s advisory council until last month, when he transitioned to become a science and technology adviser. He was also one of a handful of Invoke executives who were paid millions of dollars a year to provide advisory services and “managerial support” extending into every aspect of Darktrace’s business, including technology, strategy and marketing.
Invoke was paid more than $3m for support services and other costs in the year ending June 2020, up from more than $2m in each of the two previous fiscal years, and a further $1.9m in the six months ending in December 2020.
That relationship will end with Darktrace’s IPO, which will incur a further £1.2m termination fee payable to Invoke.
The arrangement was similar to other private equity groups with their portfolio companies, Invoke said, and reflected the fact that its business model is different to venture capital firms that often back tech start-ups, which charge fees to investors. While Lynch was hands-on during Darktrace’s early days, he has been less involved operationally in recent years, the spokesperson said.
Darktrace has taken other steps to distance itself from Invoke ahead of the IPO. It said it was “implementing a transition plan for its full separation from Invoke”, including no longer sharing offices and personnel, which was due for completion last week.
Last year, Darktrace took out a convertible loan from several existing investors that raised proceeds of $163m, of which $127m was used to buy and cancel some of Invoke’s shares. That reduced Invoke’s holding in the company to 36 per cent by December 2020. Today, Lynch, together with his wife Angela Bacares, owns 19 per cent of Darktrace.
People close to Darktrace and Invoke say its decision to list in London had no bearing on Lynch’s legal troubles in the US.
Gustafsson said London was a “very logical choice” given Darktrace’s Cambridge headquarters and the UK’s pedigree in artificial intelligence. Listing in the US or merging with a blank-cheque company “really wasn’t a consideration”, she added.
Gustafsson said Lynch’s legal battle would have “no impact on the performance of the business”, calling him a “visionary technologist”.
While Deliveroo’s share price has slumped since its London listing, Gustafsson said Darktrace was different because it was “a fundamental technology company”, with high gross margins and predictable recurring revenues.
Darktrace uses artificial intelligence to detect and respond to cyber threats at more than 4,700 clients. It generated revenue of almost $200m in its latest financial year, up 45 per cent year on year.
But pre-tax losses more than doubled to $47.9m in the first half of the current fiscal year, primarily because of non-cash financing costs from last year’s convertible loan. It projects revenue growth will slow further in the next two years.
While profitability is “absolutely an option that’s available to us”, Gustafsson said her priority was “to continue to grow”.
Jefferies, Berenberg and KKR Capital Markets are joint global co-ordinators for the float while Needham and Piper Sandler will act as additional joint bookrunners.