Critical Start Raises $40 Million in Minority Investment to Fuel Growth of Its Zero-Trust Platform and Managed Detection and Response Services

PLANO, TX – June 12, 2019 – Funds will be used to accelerate North American expansion and capitalize on premier partnerships with Microsoft, Splunk, Chronicle, Palo Alto Networks, Cylance, and Carbon Black – Critical Start, a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response services, today announced a sizeable minority investment from Sagemount, a growth equity firm. Critical Start plans to use its first-ever outside investment to significantly expand its market presence for the company’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services as it expands nationally – including new field offices in Los Angeles and New York City – to serve enterprise customers and its network of channel partners.

Critical Start’s MDR services are differentiated by its unique Zero-Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP), which ingests and investigates all alerts until they can be safely filtered out, resulting in a 99% reduction in alerts that require attention. The Company also offers a MobileSOC application so customers can interact with the Company’s SOC analysts from anywhere to investigate, escalate and remediate security issues without being tethered to their desk. Underscoring ZTAP’s unique intellectual property and operational leverage, Critical Start has been named an MDR launch partner for high-profile security technologies including Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Protection, Chronicle’s Backstory, and Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XDR/Traps. In addition, Critical Start’s ZTAP and MDR services support a variety of other security technologies, including Splunk, Cylance, Carbon Black, and others.

“As more security partners and end customers recognize the unique value our ZTAP and MDR services add to their technologies, we’ve seen our MDR opportunities quadruple and our deal size triple compared to a year ago. This funding gives us the resources to accelerate our expansion and capitalize on the market demand for MDR services,” said Rob Davis, CEO at Critical Start. “As an employee-owned company, Critical Start was looking for a capital partner that understood the market opportunity and valued our culture and focus. Sagemount proved to be the perfect fit.” 

Critical Start’s MDR business grew by more than 300% last year and is on pace to more than double revenue this year. The Company was recently named by the Dallas Business Journal to its Middle Market 50 list as one of the fastest-growing midsize companies and was also named by CRN to its 2019 MSP 500 and Security 100 lists. The Company was a CRN 2018 Triple Crown Winner and named by MSSP Alert to its 2018 Top 100 list.

“When it comes to growth investing, the best companies are looking for a great partner, not just an investment,” said Michael Kosty, Partner, Sagemount. “As a high-growth, profitable private company, Critical Start was successfully attacking the market for MDR services on its own but sought to accelerate product development and partnership opportunities. The company plans to capitalize on the huge enterprise opportunity for MDR services, which aligns perfectly with our strategy of providing flexible capital and strategic assistance to market-leading companies with recurring revenue models in high-growth markets.”

DC Advisory served as the exclusive financial advisor to Critical Start. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

About Critical Start

Critical Start is leading the way in Managed Detection and Response. Our mission is simple: protect our customers’ brand while reducing their risk. We do this for organizations of all sizes through our award-winning portfolio, from the delivery of managed security services to security-readiness assessments using our proven framework, the Defendable Network, professional services, and product fulfillment. Critical Start has achieved the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II compliance certification and was recently named a CRN® 2018 Triple Crown Winner. Visit www.criticalstart.com for more information.

About Sagemount

Sagemount is a growth-focused private capital firm with $1.7 billion in committed capital. Founded in 2012, the firm provides flexible capital and strategic assistance to market-leading companies in high-growth sectors across a wide variety of transaction situations. Sagemount invests in both control and non-control positions and will make equity and/or junior debt investments. Targeted sectors include software, digital infrastructure, healthcare IT services, business, and consumer services, and financial technology/specialty finance. For more information, please visit www.sagemount.com.