London cyber security specialist makes £1.5m acquisition, its third of 2021

Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, the technology commercialisation company focused on cyber security and risk management, has announced it has signed terms to acquire a cyber threat company.

On completion this acquisition would bring its portfolio to five cyber security offerings alongside its cyber security consulting business. Crossword will now focus its full attention on marketing and selling its product portfolio and consulting services to scale up the business.

Crossword has agreed, subject to contract, to pay a total consideration of £1.53m for the cyber threat company, in a mixture of cash and shares, some upfront and some deferred. This price represents an annual recurring revenue multiple of 5.25.

The acquisition brings additional SaaS (Software as a Service) products which provide clients with “high value cyber security insight at an affordable cost”.

It will bring circa twenty new clients to Crossword, across various sectors in multiple jurisdictions. The target company is reaching breakeven, with 90 per cent recurring revenue. Cross sell opportunities will be explored with the acquisition, alongside operating synergies.

A further announcement will be released once the acquisition agreement has been signed which is expected early 2022.

This pending acquisition will be Crossword’s third acquisition in less than 12 months and achieves its stated aim of “having a portfolio of five products by the end of 2022”. Verifiable Credentials Limited was acquired in May 2021 and its product, Identiproof, increased Crossword’s software product portfolio to three alongside Rizikon and Nixer.

Tom Ilube CBE, CEO at Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to acquire this fast growth company, and to complete our objective of having five cyber security SaaS products in our portfolio almost a year ahead of schedule.

“The second half of 2021 continued to see excellent client traction with Rizikon, and we are ending the year with more than 500 users of our leading product. With our product portfolio in place, we can now focus our full attention on marketing and selling our SaaS products and consulting services to scale up the business.”