Private Equity

SME

6 minutes

25/01/2021

Foresight invests £2.5m of growth capital into Titania, an award-winning cybersecurity automation software provider

  • Worcestershire-based cybersecurity software business founded in 2009
  • Growth plans include expanding customer base through increased outbound sales efforts and new product development
  • £2.5 million investment from Foresight funds

Click here to access the announcement as a PDF

London, 25 January 2021: Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”), a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, has invested into Titania Group Limited (“Titania” or “the Company”), a cybersecurity automation software business. The investment will be used to support the senior management team in taking Titania through its next stage of growth, assisted by Foresight’s expertise in the sector.

Founded in 2009 by Ian Whiting, the company has grown substantially due to the success of its first product, Nipper, which automates the assessment of network devices to identify mis-configurations and vulnerabilities with the accuracy of a penetration tester. Winner of multiple cybersecurity industry awards, as well as the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, the company has over 1,000 customers globally, particularly within governments, critical infrastructure and penetration testing for sectors, including the Payment Card Industry (PCI).

The global Security Automation market is forecast to grow by 8% pa to $25bn by the end of 2024. The demand for accurate audit automation at scale is driven by regulatory requirements for continuous monitoring, with Security and Network Operation Centers testing all devices more frequently. The investment will be used to accelerate the launch of Titania’s integrated Enterprise Solution comprising Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) which scales its world-leading automation accuracy to reduce Detection and Remediation of mis-configurations and vulnerabilities. Through this new product, Titania has the opportunity to become a global leader in meeting this critical new need, helping organisations worldwide strengthen and secure vital networks at scale. Foresight’s investment will also be used to enhance outbound sales and marketing efforts for Titania’s current suite of on-demand pen-test and compliance assessment automation solutions.

Commenting on the investment, Phil Lewis, CEO of Titania Ltd., said: “Titania’s mission is to increase our customers’ network resilience and security compliance, and Foresight’s backing and investment will accelerate our ambitious plans to automatically detect and remediate mis-configurations and vulnerabilities at scale and reduce customers’ attacks while evidencing compliance. Delivering this at scale is especially important in a world in which organisations need to move from occasional auditing through to continuous monitoring of network security. Foresight will support us in achieving our goals, enabling our customers and partners to use Titania as a cornerstone solution in the global Vulnerability Managed Detection and Response technology stack and market.”

Stephan Gueorguiev, Investment Director at Foresight, added: “We are excited to work together with the management team and back Titania as it increases its offering by launching the Titania Enterprise Solution adding to their market-leading on-demand device audit tools. The ever-increasing cybersecurity threat presents a large and rapidly growing global market opportunity for continuous network device monitoring at enterprise scale which Titania’s products address with unparalleled accuracy and speed.”

Ian Whiting, Founder, commented: “Our partnership with Foresight comes at a very important time in the Company’s development and that of the industry.  It provides the platform from which to accelerate our growth and our delivery of enterprise-scale solutions to meet customers’ cybersecurity challenges, helping them stay ahead of constantly developing threats.”

 

Advisers to Titania:

Legal Advice:                    Simmons & Simmons

 

Advisers to Foresight:

Financial DD:                    HMT Corporate Finance

Legal DD:                          Shoosmiths

Commercial DD:              RPL

Technology DD:               Cloud Origin

Management DD:           Catalysis Advisory

 

ENDS

For more information contact:

Citigate (PR to Foresight):

Patricia De Bidegain: foresight@citigatedewerogerson.com / +44 (0) 7921 353 825

Will Easton: foresight@citigatedewerogerson.com / +44 (0) 7860 753146

 

Notes to Editors

About Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”):

Foresight is a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager which has been managing investment funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients for more than 35 years.

Foresight has c.£6.8 billion of Assets Under Management across a number of funds, including Listed Vehicles, Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs), Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), Inheritance Tax Solutions using Business Relief (BR) and Open-Ended Investment Companies (OEICs).

Foresight’s Private Equity Team, comprising over 30 investment professionals, manages c. £700 million in a portfolio of more than 100 companies and pursues four discrete but complementary investment styles: Venture, Impact, Growth and Replacement Capital through its growing regional office network.

Foresight was a commended finalist in the Best Venture Capital Trust Provider category at the 2020 Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts Awards.  Foresight was named ‘Fund Manager of the Year’ at the PLC Awards last year, ‘Generalist VCT of the Year’ at the Investment Week Tax Efficiency Awards 2018/19 and was a finalist in the 2018 Unquote British Private Equity Awards as Venture and Growth Capital House of the Year.

Foresight’s largest office is in London with regional UK offices in Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Cambridge and Guernsey and international offices in Sydney, Rome, Madrid, and Luxembourg.

www.foresightgroup.eu  

About Titania

Established over a decade ago in the UK and now also operating out of its US base in Arlington, VA, Titania is a cybersecurity software development company founded by Ian Whiting, supported by a team of highly acclaimed cyber security software and network security experts. Titania’s intelligent software enables network and security administrators and vulnerability assessors to quickly gain an accurate view of device configurations with unrivalled accuracy and clarity around network risks.

Titania enables organisations to produce expert level security reports, with fewer false positives, saving auditors up to three hours per device/endpoint. Its products enable customers to adhere to their risk management frameworks, prioritizing device specific technical fixes to help the organization stay secure in the face of cyber threats. With cyber-crime on the rise, automating cyber hygiene is essential across all industries and risk prevention is critical to businesses and organizations of all sizes globally.

Titania is best-known for its award-winning configuration auditing solution, Nipper. Offering unrivalled accuracy when it comes to remediating network security issues, Nipper enables users to dedicate valuable resources to analysing and prioritizing fixes to secure firewalls, switches and routers by providing:

  • Visibility of actual network vulnerabilities, including existing false negatives
  • Significantly fewer false positives to investigate
  • Automated risk prioritization
  • Precise remediation with exact technical fixes
  • Flexible, configurable, easy to read reports
  • SIEM and third-party reporting integration

www.titania.com

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