IK Partners enters into exclusive negotiations for the sale of its stake in Pr0ph3cy Group to Carlyle

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III Fund (“IK SC III”) has entered into exclusivity negotiations for the sale of its stake in Pr0ph3cy Group (“Pr0ph3cy” or “the Group”), a leading ‘one-stop-shop’ cybersecurity business in France, to global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG). This represents the first exit from the Development Capital pool within the IK SC III Fund, after a holding period of under two years. IK will be reinvesting alongside Carlyle and the management team. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Led by CEO Arthur Bataille, Pr0ph3cy Group is a leading provider of IT and cybersecurity services to a highly diversified blue-chip customer base within the public and private sectors, including: Aerospace & Defence; Financial Services; Transport and Consumer. Resulting from the merger of Silicom and Seela in 2021 in a primary leveraged buyout led by IK and together with the subsequent acquisitions of OpenCyber and Harmonie Technologie in 2022, the Company now operates across the entire cyber services value chain with expertise in: cyber strategy, risk and identity management; audit and penetration testing; configuration of security software and hardware (NetSecOps and DevSecOps); cyber e-training and upskilling solutions; and artificial intelligence.

At present, Pr0ph3cy has around 600 employees who serve hundreds of customers from its nine offices across Europe and North America. With IK’s support and including the two add-ons, the Company roughly tripled its size through the acceleration of its activity through an ambitious recruitment strategy, initiation of a significant internationalisation effort in Canada and Belgium; and delivery of Seela.io’s product roadmap to become a best-in-class, global cyber-focused e-learning tool. An overall reinforcement of group processes and managerial structure also commenced.

The Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) platform will enable Pr0ph3cy’s continued growth and the Carlyle team will work with management and IK to continue the Company’s buy-and-build strategy to gain further scale, broaden its service portfolio and expand internationally. Upon acquisition, the Group will rebrand and change its name to “NEVERHACK”.

Pierre Gallix, Managing Partner at IK and Advisor to the IK SC III Fund, said: “Over the past two years, we’ve worked in partnership with the team at Pr0ph3cy to deliver their ambitious strategic agenda and pursue numerous value creation opportunities. We have been impressed with their dedication and hard work to date and look forward to continuing our work with them, alongside Carlyle.”

Arthur Bataille, Founder and CEO of Pr0ph3cy Group, said: “With the support of IK, we have experienced a significant acceleration in growth which has helped us to evolve substantially. They understood our vision and passion for innovation from the start and have worked with my team and I to help us begin releasing our ambitions. We are proud of all that we have achieved in such a short space of time with and look forward to welcoming Carlyle as we enter the next phase of our journey. We thank the team at IK for their continued support.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to works council consultation and customary regulatory approvals.

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com