Nomios

Private Equity Manager (GP)

Case study

About the company

Nomios provides cybersecurity and networking solutions for enterprises. The company’s services include managed detection and response, network security, and secure access service edge (SASE). The business aims to simplify and automate network operations while enhancing security.

Headquartered in France, Nomios has a presence in 20 offices across Europe and has more than 600 employees.

Investment rationale

• The company operates in a large and growing cybersecurity market.
• It is the market leader in the Netherlands and France, with a growing presence in the UK, Belgium, Germany and Poland.
• At the time of the investment, there was a significant opportunity to conduct a buy-and-build strategy and drive consolidation in the market.

Private equity manager profile

• IK Partners (“IK”) is a London-headquartered European mid-market private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), France, Nordics, and the UK, with an emphasis on leveraging local expertise and market knowledge.
• Since its founding in 1989, IK Partners has raised more than €17 billion of capital and invested in over 190 European companies.
• IK Partners targets investments across various sectors, including business services, healthcare, consumer and industrials.

Our relationship

• Pantheon has a long-established relationship with IK Partners. It has several primary and secondary investments in various IK Partners funds and has also completed multiple co-investments alongside the private equity manager.

Active management and value creation

• Since IK acquired the company in January 2019, Nomios has undergone a transition towards becoming a cybersecurity business of scale across Europe.
• The company has successfully doubled its revenues through organic growth, which has been realised across service lines and geographies.
• Nomios has capitalised on its proven track record of client stickiness, maintaining and achieving high vendor accreditations and high employee loyalty.
• Nomios has also launched several new strategic initiatives, including the successful unveiling of various security operating centres (SOC’s) in its key markets.
• The company has also expanded its footprint in Europe through two acquisitions in Poland and Italy.

Exit

• In November 2023, Nomios was acquired by Keensight Capital, a private equity manager focused on pan-European growth buyout investments. PIP made a return of 2.8x on the original cost and IRR of 25%.