Paul Stafford

For anyone launching a company, the most obvious piece of advice is to pick a sector with growth potential. The founders of Mimecast did exactly that 20 years ago, but even they could hardly imagine just how wild the ride would be in cybersecurity. The firm founded by South Africans Peter Bauer and Neil Murray in 2003 will mark its 20th anniversary as a private entity, after being bought for $5.8 billion by global private equity firm Permira. Before that, it was listed on Nasdaq for six years, and grew to more than 2 000 employees, supplying managed security, continuity and archiving services to protect email, ensure access and simplify email management.

Permira’s money and experience promise to boost Mimecast’s ability to innovate and grow. The timing is perfect, since cybersecurity attacks have soared as a result of physical wars and the less dramatic but more widespread move to remote working. Mimecast also plans to focus more on protecting the government sector and non-governmental organisations, which cybercriminals are attacking as weaker targets.