Technology

Posted on August 17, 2016 by staff

Avecto ‘didn’t need’ US investment – but it helped

Technology

A cyber security CEO has revealed how funding from across the Atlantic saw him rip up his business plan.

Paul Kenyon, who co-founded Avecto with Mark Austin in 2008, accepted an investment of £32 million from private equity firm JMI Equity in December 2015.

The funding meant the Manchester-based market leader in the $3 billion endpoint security sector was able to scale more quickly than expected.

“Owning your own business means you make all the decisions for yourself – then suddenly you get a partner on board and they have influence,” Kenyon, speaking at the International Festival for Business, told BusinessCloud of the culture shock.

“Fortunately we’ve got a very good contract and they’re a minority still, but you have to start doing things in different ways.

“We didn’t actually need the money because we were very cash-rich as a business, but we recognised a phenomenal opportunity for growth.

“We threw out our existing business plan, which we could fund entirely ourselves, and rewrote a new one to take advantage of the cash.”

Avecto, which also has offices in the US and Australia, used the money to boost marketing and launch products for Apple devices.

It aims to reduce hacking breaches by restricting employees’ access to only the applications they need and counts consultancy firm PwC among its customers.