British cybersecurity firm; Darktrace backed by tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch announced that it intends to float on the London Stock Exchange on Monday. The decision was taken by the firm with the intention of raising new funds to help push its product development capability as well as strengthen its balance sheet. Darktrace was founded in 2013. It uses Artificial Intelligence to understand IT networks and to detect attacks by identifying abnormalities in the system.
The company’s revenue rose from $79.4 million to $199.1 million between the fiscal years of 2018 and 2020. According to the firm, core earnings improved from a $27 million loss to $9 million profit between the fiscal years of 2018 and 2020.
With its announcement to float, Darktrace therefore enters into a flurry of deals, with Madrid-based Allfunds targeting an Amsterdam IPO and Sweden’s Trustly on Monday announcing its bid for a Stockholm listing and this could be the two biggest deals in Europe this year. The first three months of 2021 have been the European market’s strongest quarter since 2015 and includes tech and e-commerce companies such as Poland’s InPost and Germany’s Auto1.
Darktrace expects to have a free float of at least 20 percent of issued capital and in addition shares representing up to a further 15 percent of the offer will be made available for pursuant. Darktrace also said that there would also be a secondary sell-down of shares by existing shareholders apart from the primary offer.
Darktrace is an Artificial Intelligence company and cyber defence is where it specializes in. Established in 2013, the company has its headquarters in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco in the US, with over 44 offices across the globe. Darktrace was founded in collaboration between British Intelligence agencies and Mathematicians from Cambridge University. Darktrace has been deployed more than 9,000 times across five continents and has over a thousand employees around the world. The company reached a valuation of $1.65 billion in September 2018 and thus became a unicorn.
