Axelo, an AI-enabled managed services provider, has acquired Australian cyber security provider Cynch Security.
Melbourne-based Cynch, founded in 2017 by Adam Selwod and Susie Jones, provides a cyber risk assessment and guidance platform for small businesses, enterprises and technology partners, delivering tailored remediation plans and coaching among other services.
The company counts the likes of Telstra, KPMG and the Victorian state government among its customers.
Now, it joins Axelo – also Melbourne-headquartered, but with a team of over 330 people spread across five countries. Axelo operates as part of ShoreTree Holdings, a Singapore-incorporated investment holding company which has over 30 brands in 10-plus countries in its portfolio.
Cynch was brought onboard with the view of expanding Axelo’s cybersecurity-focused 'Protect’ pillar, which sits alongside the ‘Improve’ pillar, where Axelo’s DevOps and software quality engineering lives, and the ‘Run’ pillar, which contains the company’s back office and offshore BPO capabilities.
Selwood, who has since taken on a cyber advisory lead role at Axelo as part of the transition, explained that he’s known the Axelo team for close to two years, with the pair of companies exploring how they might be able to partner on some work together prior to the acquisition.
“Eventually, we progressed that to the point where we decided there's probably a really good fit here and the capabilities that we would be able to bring in as Cynch would really enable and expand and align into what Axelo is trying to achieve moving forward,” he told techpartner.news.
“We weren't necessarily shopping [Cynch] around when we first spoke with the team, [but] over the months of conversations and catching up and exploring different ideas, it became more of a sensible move in terms of finding a home and broadening out our reach.”
For Nik Devidas, group CEO of Axelo, the move to bring Cynch into the fold was driven by the perennial question many MSPs face at one point or another – do they try to build certain capabilities in-house or instead buy a company that already has the expertise, services and customers in areas that they value?
Devidas had been on the other side of this transaction before too: prior to joining Axelo last year by way of his cybersecurity consultancy 4walls being acquired by the group, Devidas had founded Melbourne-based MSP Rock IT, itself bought by First Focus back in 2023.
“There was a couple of features that we were building into the 4walls platform that Cynch already had,” he said.
“They've got a partner portal, they've got ‘parent and child’ accounts so MSPs can see the sub-levels out of the box and then you get the capability in Adam and Hunter [Faulkner, Cynch’s GRC consultant], who are both GRC consultants by trade and also have a software development part to them.”
Selwood said that the situation was mirrored for Cynch, telling techpartner.news that the company was “gearing up to grow and expand”; as such, joining the Axelo group now provides a “good opportunity” to have access to a lot of the capabilities that Cynch was about to have to go out and build themselves.
“It was either go out and raise a bit more cash and come at it ourselves, try to bootstrap it or move in and work with Axelo under that umbrella and really accelerate that from day one,” he said.
Devidas stated that even though the company is small by headcount, Cynch has “brilliant platforms that needed a commercialisation edge”, with Sellwood adding that Cynch has “a nice, healthy bench to pull in, a lot of capability that’s been built up over the last eight to nine years, and a good, supportive customer base.”
“Where 4walls have focused a lot on human risk management - phishing simulations, e-learning, and board level reporting in non-technical statements - Cynch was focused on the technical compliance and maturity,” Devidas explained.
“If you bring those two things together then you have a very holistic approach to not only cybersecurity but also cybersecurity governance.”
The current plan is for the 4walls and Cynch brands to be rolled up in the next six to eight weeks, to then be presented to market under the singular ‘Axelo Protect’ banner.
Devidas said that this consolidation is designed to present a clearer, more unified picture to the market when it comes to Axelo’s offerings, which are used by customers ranging from community organisations like the YMCA and Basketball Victoria all the way up to notable names like Australia Post and Coles.
“Organisations at a certain scale will say ‘I just want to deal with one provider, one account manager, one relationship manager, and it means I can get [my] cybersecurity done, I can get my back office sorted through lower cost labour [and] maybe I need some software development or AI enablement [too]’,” he said.
“Having one place to go to with one relationship is a more efficient way for businesses who don't want to do these things to get it done a lot quicker and more cost effectively.”
Looking ahead to 2027, Devidas shared that Axelo is on “a pathway to IPO”, a milestone slated to happen at some point next year.
“We're looking at the front end [of 2027] at this point, but anything can happen with market conditions [and] world conditions as well, so things will evolve and change over the next few months,” he said.
“M&A activity is high on the agenda as is expanding our organic growth as well.”
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