Shearwater Group acquires Welsh cyber security software business

Digital resilience firm Shearwater Group plc is acquiring a provider of data loss protection (DLP) enterprise software for £1.7m.

London-based Shearwater said GeoLang Holdings Limited will form part of the group’s information security and assurance business, Xcina.

GeoLang will continue to be led by CEO Dr. Debbie Garside following the acquisition, with all engineering and support teams due to remain on board.

The company’s patented DLP technology platform, Ascema, helps organisations protect sensitive information at the content level. It discovers, classifies and remediates data across the corporate infrastructure by integrating with other enterprise applications, on site or in the cloud.

Shearwater confirmed plans to invest in GeoLang to accelerate its go-to-market strategy. As a result, the firm expects GeoLang be revenue generating in its first full year as part of the group.

Michael (Mo) Stevens, Shearwater Group CEO, said: “Establishing a presence within the DLP market has been an objective since we launched our digital resilience strategy last year.

“GeoLang’s innovative, patent protected technology will underpin our proposition within this rapidly growing sector, and by adding another ‘channel first’ SaaS business to the group’s portfolio, we expect to see the benefits of improved cash generation over the coming years as the business scales in line with the considerable market opportunity we are seeing.”

GeoLang is based in Cardiff.

Dr. Debbie Garside, co-founder and CEO, commented: “Team GeoLang are thrilled to be joining Shearwater at such a pivotal time in the business’ evolution.

“Finding the right partner to support us in achieving our growth plans has been critical and in Shearwater, we believe we have done that.”

She added: “Their strategy of building a digital resilience group with such a strong UK focus resonates well with us and we are very excited about the potential for Ascema and the wider Shearwater Group as a whole.”