Digital61 undergoes local management buyout

Canberra-founded technology services provider Digital61 has undergone a management buyout led by CEO Marty Holden.

Holden, who first joined the company in 2022 as COO after over eight years at Atturra as CIO and head of emerging business, was gifted five per cent of the company in 2024.

The move - which saw Holden spend $2.5 million to buy out Brian Fenwick, Andy McInnes and Bill Ratcliff, the trio who started the business in 2017 - sees his shareholding rise from five per cent to 100 per cent as he becomes the single company director and shareholder of Digital61.

Digital61’s market evolution under Holden is expected to build on the company's focus on secure managed services and 'sovereign' delivery, including ongoing investment in assurance-led capability, certifications and partner-enabled service expansion.

In addition to managed services, the company also delivers cyber security, cloud, governance and compliance capabilities.

Holden said that he purchased Digital61 because, after 25 years in the industry, he believes he has found a "dream team".

"I saw a group of talented, committed people with the capability to deliver real value for customers today and even greater value into the future," he told techpartner.news.

"I also saw the opportunity to build something that matters — growing Australian careers, strengthening sovereign capability, and creating long-term value through local talent and intellectual property.

"For some time, the business had suffered from misalignment at the ownership level, which in my view was holding back its full potential. Acquiring the company allowed me to address that and create a much clearer, more unified direction. Digital61 is now led by a highly aligned leadership team with a shared belief in the future we are building."

Expanding into new markets

The company said its next chapter will be shaped by a dual focus: continuing to support federal government customers while expanding more deliberately into broader commercial and regulated industry markets.

Holden said this expansion translates into targeting organisations that operate in security-conscious or compliance-driven environments and need more than traditional reactive IT support.

"Our focus includes government-adjacent organisations, defence industry suppliers, local government, healthcare, aged care and human services, regional financial institutions, professional services, and selected critical service operators," he explained.

"These are typically organisations managing sensitive data, operating under board, audit or regulator pressure, and looking for stronger security, better governance and clearer evidence of improvement over time."

Holden claimed that what sets Digital61 apart is that it brings government-grade security into these markets through the disciplines it has built in federal government — secure delivery, cyber resilience, compliance maturity, operational governance and "sovereign confidence".

"But we are not just taking security into the market; we are also bringing a model of continuous modernisation and measurable improvement," he told techpartner.news.

"That means helping customers reduce incidents, improve security posture, strengthen compliance maturity and optimise cost over time, rather than simply maintaining the status quo.

"So the markets we are expanding into are the ones where trust, assurance and ongoing uplift matter - organisations that want a partner to continuously strengthen their environment, not just support it."

2025 saw the company expand its cybersecurity portfolio with the launch of Secure Cloud Gateway and Continuous Assurance services; it also was chosen to create an IT infrastructure for the country's Net Zero Economy Agency.

Sovereignty capability part of company's "DNA"

Sovereignty continues to be a talked-about topic in the Australian IT industry, and Holden stated that for Digital61, 'sovereignty' is not just a positioning statement, but a practical part of how it operates.

"Our heritage comes from supporting federal government customers, where sovereign ownership, Australian-based delivery, cleared personnel, secure infrastructure and confidence over data handling are essential to operating in protected and security-sensitive environments," he said.

"That has made sovereign capability part of our DNA. It is how we have built trust with customers, and it remains strategically important because those same disciplines — local accountability, secure delivery, governance and assurance — are now increasingly relevant beyond government as well.

"We are proud of our Australian heritage, and we are equally proud of the role we can play in growing Australian careers, local capability and sovereign technology expertise."

Digital61 was highly commended in the 2025 techpartner.news Impact Awards in the Customer Experience Award category and a partner finalist in the 2025 Benchmark Security Awards, as well as ranking 47th in the 2024 techpartner.news Fast 50 rankings.