Trends

Acquisitions for internationalization

Entering new markets is a common strategy for the growth of any company, but we must bear in mind that it can be the source of great headaches: two different markets can be extremely different and involve completely unknown risks.

From possible administrative hurdles for the entry of foreign entities, very well settled local competitors , or peculiar consumer trends or behaviors, they can become complicated adaptation processes that not all companies can afford.

Keyfactor´s Case

Keyfactor, a North American company specialized in cybersecurity, is currently in a process of commercial expansion focused on the European market, which has focused on a local acquisition.

Acquisition details have not been disclosed by the company, but it is known that the entity chosen is Redtrust. Redtrsut is a Spanish company with around 50 employees, with offices in Madrid and Barcelona. The intention of Keyforce is to maintain their team, offices and Redtrust´s commercial brand, but indicating that it is a Keyfactor company.

Implicated agents

Keyfactor:

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, its main activity is cybersecurity. It is the largest cybersecurity company in the state, whose annual turnover is around 15 million dollars, and is a provider of security and digital identity management solutions throughout the United States. It is currently growing and is expected to hire between 40 and 60 employees before 2021.

Redtrust:

It is a Spanish company that was founded in 2009, also in the field of cybersecurity, and which aims to be “the leading solution in the Spanish market that allows large and medium companies to manage, centralize and control the use of their digital certificates, in a totally simple and transparent way “.

Acquisition´s background and objective

Keyfactor announced in January 2019 a financing round of $ 77 million with Insight Partners, a venture capital company that focuses on software and technology companies.

After the financing round mentioned, they have managed to double their revenues, reaching the figure of 500 million certificates of protected companies, all of them present in the Fortune 2000 list, and some of them European.

Keyfactor, already present in most of the US states, seeks to expand its network in Europe through the acquisition of Redtrust, since it would open the doors to them immediately in this market. Keyfactor has not shown interest in making more acquisitions, but does not rule out closing new alliances in the future.