Cyphra’s addition to Pixel’s cybersecurity and IT portfolio marks the company’s expansion across the UK, including Northern Ireland.
Belfast-based cybersecurity company Cyphra has been acquired by Pixel, the parent company of British IT solutions provider Perfect Image.
Founded in 2014, Cyphra works with public sector organisations, government agencies and private enterprises to protect them from the growing threat of cyberattacks such as ransomware.
Pixel hopes to bring together Cyphra’s expertise in cybersecurity and Perfect Image’s specialist mid-market IT services to expand its presence across the UK, including Northern Ireland.
“Cyphra is a strategic acquisition for Pixel as we continue to build out our portfolio of market-leading IT managed services companies,” said Tom Kelly, chair of Pixel. “We recognised that cybersecurity was fast becoming the major challenge for customers and having looked at the market we identified Cyphra as an ideal acquisition.”
Kelly said that the addition of Cyphra to Pixel’s portfolio creates profits to the value of more than £4m for the company, marking a new stage in its growth. As a result of the acquisition, Paddy Trainor, managing director of Cyphra, has been added to Pixel’s board of directors.
“We are delighted to be joining Pixel as we look to accelerate our growth across the UK. This will enable us to continue our investment in our people, our partners and our customers and achieve our ambition of becoming the leading ‘pure-play’ cybersecurity company in the UK,” said Trainor.
Cyphra adds to Pixel’s UK-wide experience dealing with clients across the Northern Irish government and US-based private cyber vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, F5 and CyberArk, Trainor said.
Founded in 1991, Newcastle-based Perfect Image provides IT solutions for mid-market customers in the UK. It counts property developer Bellway, soccer club Newcastle United, and Northumbria Police among its clients.
“With data now becoming mission critical for every organisation – large or small, public or private – effective cybersecurity is a must-have,” said Chris Shields, managing director of Perfect Image.