Geoff Lord-funded Tesserent signals more acquisitions, possibly soon

Melbourne security service provider and Palo Alto, Cisco and Sophos partner Tesserent has signaled its intention to make more acquisitions in order to become an end-to-end cybersecurity business.

Tesserent scored investment from UXC founder Geoff Lord in early 2019 and in April of the same year acquired Splunk partner Rivium.

In an announcement (PDF) to the Australian Securities Exchange today, the company declared that transaction “highly successful” and also told investors its “acquisition pipeline continues to mature” and that it “expects to have a further acquisition update during this quarter.”

“The acquisition was accretive from day one, with Rivium forecasting FY19 revenue of $4.4m and EBITDA of $650,000. EBITDA of $1,000,000 is expected in FY20,” the announcement states.

The announcement also revealed that “future acquisitions are likely to be funded by issuing vendor scrip, reducing the company’s cash funding burden.”

Tesserent will now launch a managed security solution based on Splunk, with Q2 of FY2020 picked as the start date.

Also in the pipeline is a new service, in partnership with Huntsman Security, to help businesses implement the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight security controls. “The first pilot is underway with anticipation the product will be available to all Tesserent customers in the near-term following successful completion of the pilot,” the announcement says.

Tesserent also has an AI product in the works. The announcement says the company “currently has three artificial intelligence (AI) enabled security proof of value programs running with customers as a precursor to contracting, that if successful will result in significant multi-year contracts, with the first program expected to go live in September.”

Another new initiative, a threat-hunting managed service, has won its first customer.

The company also revealed that its Cyber360 offering, which brings together 17 integrated security solutions and is aimed at mid-market buyers, has gone live.

The announcement also hinted at Tesserent landing a whale of firewall deal, as it states “sales in July 2019 for firewalls and managed services exceeded sales of firewalls for all of financial year 2019.”

Overall, the company declared it is “on track to achieve cashflow positivity and profitability on a monthly basis by end of the current financial year.”

“Recent key initiatives designed to drive sales and market share have assisted Tesserent to move towards its goal of sustainable profitability,” said managing director Julian Challingsworth. “We are pleased with recent significant progress and the move towards profitability on a month-by-month basis.”

“This is a key period for us as we expand into new high-growth markets and launch our new threat hunting products. We are rapidly positioning ourselves as a market leader in IT and cybersecurity and look forward to growing sales rapidly.”