2023-07-03 09:17:10
Posted Jul 3, 2023, 8:01 a.m. Updated Jul 3, 2023, 11:17 a.m.
The cybersecurity ecosystem in France has a great weakness: its myriad of small players, each striving to sell their solution or their specialized service, and struggling to gain scale against the big Americans. This barrier to international expansion, the Pr0ph3cy group promises to overcome soon.
It is – precisely – from the other side of the Atlantic that came the help needed by the young French company. Carlyle, an American investment company, officially entered this Monday “in exclusive negotiations to acquire” the company, mentions a press release, through its Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP) fund, specializing in tech investments in Europe.
“It is an investment of just under 100 million which includes “cash-out”, that is to say the buy-back of shares from existing shareholders, and “cash-in”, therefore money put into the company, to invest in particular in acquisitions, ”explains Charles Villet, director at CETP. “And we have the will to double this investment in the coming years to make structuring acquisitions in the sector”.
With this agreement, the American giant becomes the majority shareholder of Pr0ph3cy. The company, which is renamed “Neverhack” to mark this new chapter in its history, remains partly owned by its founding boss Arthur Bataille and the European fund IK Partners, which had already devoted 15 million euros to it.
A family business
Pr0ph3cy was officially founded in 2021, but its story began much earlier. Even before the birth of its founder in 1989. “The company grew out of Silicom, a cyber consulting firm launched in 1983 by my parents. And in particular by my mother, Martine Guinot-Bataille, who was one of the first women in tech,” says Arthur Bataille, the CEO.
Cradled by “stories of computer security and espionage”, the engineer took over the family business in 2014. But with the idea of ”returning to its origins”, computer security. “The company had diversified a lot, not necessarily in a good way”, notes the Telecom SudParis and Mines-Télécom graduate. “Coupe”, in 2017, when the “repositioning” of society is confirmed, the “subject of cyber explodes”, he recalls.
Talent shortage
But the young entrepreneur is quickly confronted with the shortage of talent that is undermining the sector. It was there that in 2019, with his teams, he launched Seela, an online training center now used by around 8,000 people. “You can compare it to a Netflix of cyber training. It is a platform with more than 700 hours of lessons accessible by subscription, in a very playful style, with attack and defense exercises for example, ”he presents.
Pr0ph3cy was born in 2021 from the union of these two companies, Silicom and Seela, with the idea of adopting “a 360 degree vision” of cyber needs. To move towards this, the company proceeds in quick succession to two acquisitions: OpenCyber, specialized in technical assistance, intrusion tests and security expertise (founded in 2012), then Harmonie Technologie, consulting company and integrator cybersecurity solutions (created in 2005, 14 million euros in revenue in 2021).
A turnover almost quadrupled in four years
Then, at the end of 2022, comes the meeting with Charles Villet from Carlyle. This complete offer, a bit like a “cyber CapGemini”, catches his eye. “Imagine you have a house to secure. You are going to put up a fence and locks: that is system architecture. Then, you go looking for solutions such as alarms: this is consulting and the integration of products and solutions. Then to ensure it, you will bring in an expert: this is cyber-rating. And finally, so that everyone respects the safety rules in the house, you offer training. That’s all we want to offer”, simplifies Arthur Bataille.
Pr0ph3cy’s anticipated turnover for 2023 is 70 million euros, “almost four times more than four years ago”, indicates the CEO, who reinjects around 4% of this sum into R&D. Despite its nine offices across Europe and North America, Pr0ph3cy still records 90% of its turnover in France. “Our goal is international expansion, starting with Europe,” highlights the boss. “We want to hire more than 300 people over 18 months in France”.
While its current customers are mainly large groups, such as Thales, Airbus or banking establishments, the company also wants to succeed in addressing SMEs and ETIs, which have become prime targets for cyberattackers.
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