DXA ANNOUNCEMENT by Fernanda Crawford
DXA Investments is pleased to announce the first transaction of its Excelsior II Fund with a minority investment of private equity in SIKUR, an innovative provider of cybersecurity solutions. This transaction will be structured as a warehouse deal whereby DXA will fund the investment prior to closing the overall Excelsior II Fund. Furthermore, the terms of the transaction allow DXA to participate in management decisions and provide for control of two out of the five seats on the company’s board. DXA expects to finalize capital contributions to Excelsior II in 2020, and thereafter each contemplated portfolio transaction will range from $5 million to $10 million throughout the term of the Fund.
SIKUR was founded in Brazil in 2014. Since then it has rapidly expanded its client base in Europe and the United States. SIKUR has established strategic partnerships across the globe with manufacturers of essential hardware components and critical systems integrators to provide an unrivaled total customer security solution. Fabio Fischer, the CEO of SIKUR, notes the growing use of commercial communications applications such as WHATSAPP and TELEGRAM, and states “…these apps are ineffective from the security point of view, creating a lot of corporate governance issues.” To address these issues, SIKUR sought to produce a solution that employs military-grade encryption together with flexibility, allowing the user to utilize the software on their private cloud, local premises, or third-party cloud provider.
To this end, they developed SIKUR Messenger, a custom solution which is the most secure civilian communications suite in the world, combining state of the art advanced cryptography with an unsurpassed user interface and experience. SIKUR’s core operating system is widely adaptable to a variety of hardware platforms, enabling the company to provide effective solutions for mobile and IoT environments. Secure cloud distribution of this software via a SaaS business model allows SIKUR to expand and service its customers in an efficient, safe and widespread method. CEO Fischer states “we are bringing to the market the most innovative online privacy technology…delivering peace of mind to our clients so they can exchange information with no worries in a secure fashion is our mission.”
The CEO of DXA, Oscar Decotelli, believes demand for SaaS delivery and cybersecurity solutions will continue to grow in the years to come, and he views this market as a multi-decade phenomenon. Mr. Decotelli states “cybersecurity is the largest potential market within the technology space, and with cyber-attacks becoming the number one business risk, we believe the sector will grow more than 20% for the next 5 to 10 years.” He notes that Gartner, Inc. predicts global information security spending will exceed $124 billion in 2019 – an increase of 8.7% over 2018 – and will likely surpass $170 billion by 2022. The combination of the overall market coupled with the superior technology developed by SIKUR underscores the optimism for this initial Excelsior II investment. He further points out “SIKUR is one of the only firms in the world with a turnkey solution for companies, governments, and vendors. Their hacker-proof software is the ideal solution for every market participant in this space.” The potential represented by the investment in SIKUR is hand and glove with the overall forward-looking philosophy of Excelsior II. Mr. Decotelli emphasizes “DXA is very excited to debut our new Fund with this investment in SIKUR, a firm that started in Brazil but now operates globally. Our target of generating above 20% IRR to investors will be directly impacted by this firm’s potential growth.” For more information about Excelsior II, contact:
ABOUT DXA INVESTMENTS
DXA INVESTMENTS is a private equity investment firm founded in 2012 and located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. DXA also has offices in Sao Paulo, and New York City, and has a team of 10 professionals that serve its client base of select families, institutions and wealthy individuals from across the globe. DXA currently manages approximately $200 million in assets for these clients. For more information, visit the website located at www.dxainvestments.com.