Sale Comes at a Time of Growing Consolidation Across the Cybersecurity Industry

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Option3, a specialist cybersecurity private equity firm that combines a heritage in the national security community with decades of expertise in the investment industry, announced today that it recently sold its entire investment in Dark Cubed, an automated network security solution serving small and medium- sized businesses (SMBs), to Celerium, a leader in innovative active cyber defense solutions.

"Nearly half of cyber-attacks target SMBs and yet this part of the market, with its budget and manpower limitations, is the first to be overlooked" said Manish Thakur, Managing Partner at Option3. "We looked hard for security solutions that were specifically designed for this universe, understanding its budget constraints, limited internal cyber talent and no experience in integrating complex solutions to protect their sensitive data."

Thakur added, "Dark Cubed was built from the outset with SMBs as its focus, providing enterprise grade automated network security at a fraction of the cost, requiring no hardware, or people to manage. By delivering automated data-driven decision making at a low monthly price point, Dark Cubed created its own category in the market, consequently not competing with vendors in the firewall and threat intelligence space."

Dark Cubed was founded by Vince Crisler, former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the White House, who was able to bring deep security experience gained in the Department of Defense (DoD) and the wider federal government. This background served the company well as it won the confidence of the government looking to protect small and emerging companies in the nation's defense industrial base.

"It was a pleasure working with Vince and the team," said Lisa Donnan, Operating Partner and former Board Member at Dark Cubed. "The credibility the company's patented technology gained at DoD certainly got our attention, but its applicability goes so much further. They will be able to reach a far greater market in partnership with Celerium."

Donnan, along with one other Option3 representative, resigned from the Dark Cubed board earlier this month when the private equity firm sold its entire position and ended its role at the company.

"We were invested in Dark Cubed for only two years, a brief period for us. But when the business logic of the larger Managed Service Provider (MSP) setting presented itself, we knew that exiting was the right thing to do for both companies," said Thakur. "In many ways, consolidation has become as important as innovation in this industry, as overstretched cyber managers increasingly look for single integrated platforms to meet their growing needs."

Option3 is a specialist cybersecurity private equity firm based in New York and Reston, Virginia that combines experience from the classified world of U.S. national security with decades in investing, capital markets, and M&A. Since 2015, Option3 has invested in a variety of innovative companies across the cyber ecosystem, through two investment portfolios. It is currently "advance investing" out of its new "C2" cybersecurity private equity fund. Unlike the venture investing of most cyber funds, C2 will take control positions in mid-market companies, growing them to scale. The Fund will leverage the C-suite operational experience of the Option3 team including Chief Financial, Marketing, Technology, and Risk Management positions. Option3's investment strategy is informed by its longstanding Technology Board, which spans the former Chief Information Officer of the CIA to the former CIO at Department of Defense, and an Advisory Council led by a former CEO of Lehman Brothers. For more information, please visit www.option3.com.

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SOURCE Option3