Why we backed Exonar, a vital tool for the modern data age
We have continued our busy start to 2019 with another addition to Beringea’s UK portfolio. Our UK funds led a £6.5m investment in Exonar, a software company that has built a platform for discovering and managing data across vast corporate networks.
We believe that the business is set to become a cornerstone of digital infrastructure, providing vital tools for managing and protecting data. In an era that is witnessing a seismic transformation in our attitude to the value and security of sensitive, confidential and personal information, this has never been more important.
We have written this article to share the reasons behind our belief in the strength and growth of this business and its role as a vital tool for the modern data age.
1. Data: where reward has turned to risk
“Those who rule data will rule the entire world,” remarked Masayoshi Son, the visionary CEO of Softbank, in 2017. Less than two years on, it appears that the balance of risk and reward in owning and managing data has begun to shift.
The past twelve months has seen a slew of data breaches impacting some of the world’s largest businesses. In September, British Airways informed its customers that details from around 380,000 booking transactions had been stolen, while Marriott International announced in November that the records of 500 million customers had been involved in a data breach.
These breaches only served to heighten the tension that surrounds the use and management of personal data. Citizens throughout the developed world have never been so acutely aware of the danger presented by handing over personal information to businesses and institutions. Throw in the introduction of GDPR and the dramatic increase in the sheer volume of digital information, and it is clear that data management is a vast and growing challenge for organisations around the world.
Businesses can no longer simply trade on the value that can be extracted from data — they must now view themselves as custodians of sensitive, confidential, and personal data. And yet, the majority of businesses simply do not know what data they hold. We are decades into the digital revolution, and many have stored away data for years without considering how they will uncover it in the future.
Exonar’s technology solves this problem by enabling any organisation to immediately map and understand the information that it holds across any data source, whether it is email archives, digital records, or corporate databases. Understanding what information is held where is the first step towards the proper management and protection of data, which is now a necessity for any business.
2. Cyber security and data governance require expertise
For businesses seeking to manage petabytes of data collected by modern information systems, many will look for support from third-party platforms. However, understanding how to protect this data is a technical discipline that requires expert knowledge and substantial experience. To create a product that cuts through in this market, you have to be a trusted supplier that meets these credentials.
Exonar was founded by Adrian Barrett, whose previous career included leadership positions at Cisco and Lumeta, a global network data specialist. This substantial experience in data, analytics and information security has enabled him to develop a market-leading product and build a management team with decades of leadership experience in global cyber security and technology companies such as BT, Fujitsu, Veritas, Symantec and EMC.
With the financial firepower provided by this investment, this team is now planning to scale to deliver the growth and innovation required to establish Exonar as a trusted product for security and risk officers throughout leading corporates. Given the substantial experience and expertise of the Exonar leadership team, we are confident that the business will be able to deliver on these plans.
3. Growth and harnessing a global opportunity
The rigour and expertise of Adrian and his leadership team has enabled the business to scale rapidly in recent years. With an effective product that delivers for its corporate clients, Exonar increased its revenues by more than 200 per cent year-on-year between 2017 and 2018.
The introduction of GDPR has clearly been a key factor in this growth. Recent research by EY found the UK’s largest listed companies spent over $1.1bn to comply with GDPR before it came into force in May 2018, while the same research found that Fortune 500 companies had spent $7.8bn.
Exonar’s product provides a valuable tool for any business seeking to comply with GDPR, through enabling the immediate discovery of data and information. For instance, GDPR has enabled anyone to enact a ‘subject access request’ on organisations that hold their personal data, effectively asking what information is held where. Exonar’s rapid screening for personal information transforms a process that could previously have taken organisations days to run.
With other regions of the world considering similar legislation, there is a global race to create digital infrastructure with the proper governance and management to provide immediate insights on valuable, sensitive or confidential data. Industry analysts estimate that the global data governance software market will grow 22 per cent annually over the next five years to a value of $3.5bn by 2023.
Exonar is remarkably well positioned to capitalise on these market trends and Beringea UK is committed to enabling the business to pursue this journey and build a globally recognised leader in data security and governance.
To hear more about our UK investments and how we work with companies to scale lasting successes, please contact us at info@beringea.co.uk or visit our website.
