PLANO, Texas – April 12, 2022 – Investment enables Managed Detection and Response leader Critical Start to further accelerate rapid growth amid global escalation in cyber threat landscape – Critical Start (or “the Company”), a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) cybersecurity solutions, today announced an over $215 million strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”), a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses. The capital infusion will enable Critical Start to further accelerate growth, continue to rapidly scale the breadth and depth of its MDR offerings, and reach a wider range of customers who are investing heavily in cybersecurity as the volatile threat landscape escalates across the globe.
Critical Start’s MDR platform simplifies breach prevention by helping organizations identify, assess, and respond to cyber threats in real time while analyzing threat data to inform future responses. The Company’s technology and security operation center (SOC) analysts leverage a deep pool of behavioral data to automatically resolve over 99% of security alerts, reduce risk acceptance, and improve team productivity. In addition to the Company’s MDR platform, Critical Start’s Incident Response Team provides hands-on readiness, response and forensic services for enterprise security teams.
“Our goal at Critical Start is to be the most effective, easiest to consume and quickest to deploy Managed Detection and Response service, and we believe this investment from Vista will help us continue to expand our differentiation in how we help protect our customers from cyber-attacks,” said Rob Davis, Founder and CEO of Critical Start. “For the past ten years, we have been laser focused on protecting our customers from the most sophisticated cyber threats by building a best-in-class technology platform and team. We are thrilled to partner with Vista given their team’s deep understanding of the enterprise technology and security landscape and the resources they can deliver to help us continue along our tremendous growth trajectory.”
Critical Start has experienced rapid growth as enterprises cope with a rising volume of threats and a wide cybersecurity talent gap, putting the Company’s managed services in high demand. Critical Start serves hundreds of MDR customers with a focus on midsize and large enterprises across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, retail, government, healthcare, financial services and energy. The Company has grown ARR by more than 400% in the last three years and diversified its channel network across 90 channel partners through its integrations with third-party cybersecurity software providers including Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Crowdstrike, Splunk, SentinelOne and VMWare.
Committed to a 100% channel go-to-market model, Critical Start will use the capital from Vista to further invest in its technology, product, and service offerings as well as meaningfully expand its talented teams to meet the massive market demand.
“Across every industry, enterprises are seeking trusted providers to help protect themselves from the increasing volume of cyber-attacks, particularly given the large and increasing shortage of available sophisticated security talent,” said Ryan Atlas, Managing Director at Vista Equity Partners. “Differentiated technology, working together with their expert service and support teams, makes Critical Start the managed solutions provider of choice for organizations looking to improve their security posture and protect themselves cost-effectively against the rapidly evolving cyber-threats.”
“The demand for MDR services is soaring as organizations of all sizes and across all industries recognize the criticality of 24/7/365 cyber threat vigilance,” said Marc Teillon, Co-Head of Vista’s Foundation Fund and Senior Managing Director. “With superior technology, trusted service, and best-in-class customer advocacy, Critical Start is well positioned to be a winner in the category, and we look forward to supporting Rob and the team on this next chapter of growth.”
DC Advisory served as financial advisor to Critical Start and DLA Piper LLP served as legal counsel. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Vista.
About Critical Start
Today’s enterprise faces radical, ever-growing, and ever-sophisticated multi-vector cyber-attacks. Facing this situation is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Critical Start simplifies breach prevention by delivering the most effective managed detection and incident response services powered by the Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) with the industry’s only Trusted Behavior Registry (TBR) and MOBILESOC. With 24x7x365 expert security analysts, and Cyber Research Unit (CRU), we monitor, investigate, and remediate alerts swiftly and effectively, via contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for Time to Detection (TTD) and Median Time to Resolution (MTTR), and 100% transparency into our service. For more information, visit criticalstart.com. Follow Critical Start on LinkedIn, @CRITICALSTART, or on Twitter, @CRITICALSTART.
About Vista Equity Partners
Vista is a leading global investment firm with over $93 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2021. The firm exclusively invests in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled organizations across private equity, permanent capital, credit, and public equity strategies, bringing an approach that prioritizes creating enduring market value for the benefit of its global ecosystem of investors, companies, customers and employees. Vista’s investments are anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions and proven, flexible management techniques that drive sustainable growth. Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future – a healthier planet, a smarter economy, a diverse and inclusive community and a broader path to prosperity. Further information is available at vistaequitypartners.com. Follow Vista on LinkedIn, @Vista Equity Partners, and on Twitter, @Vista_Equity.
