Carrick Capital Partners, a Newport Beach-based private equity firm, is upping its investment in cybersecurity company Saviynt in a $700 million Series B round led by New York-based KKR & Co.
“We will invest about $200 million from one of our new funds with this new round with KKR,” Co-CEO Jim Madden told the Business Journal on Dec. 10.
The KKR-led investment values El Segundo-based Saviynt at approximately $3 billion.
Madden said Carrick’s initial investment in Saviynt was $36 million.
“We will make about 10 times our money for our investors on that investment,” Madden said of the earlier financing.
Saviynt lets businesses secure applications, data and infrastructure in a single platform for cloud and enterprise.
Carrick calls itself a “growth-oriented investment firm focused on software and software-enabled businesses.”
“Jim is closely involved in the identification, selection and post-investment growth guidance of Carrick’s portfolio companies,” Carrick says on its website.
Its portfolio companies include DailyPay, OnPay, Veritas Prime, Intelligo and Factor.
Madden first became well known in Orange County when he started HR services firm Exult in 1998 and sold it for $900 million in 2004, reaping him a payday of more than $50 million.
Blocking AI-Driven Cyber Incursions
Saviynt and similar cybersecurity firms have become increasingly important as companies across the world seek to bolster their protections against uninvited AI-driven intrusions and interference.
“Saviynt’s AI-powered platform manages, secures, and governs access for human, non-human, and AI agent identities across an organization’s applications, data, and infrastructure,” the company said in a news release on Dec. 9 announcing the Series B round.
Screening has become even more important when checking “non-human identities” created by AI.
“AI-generated identities are the newest and fastest-growing type of identity class, and the one with the greatest potential to reshape how work, productivity, and operations function across the enterprise,” Saviynt says.
Saviynt, founded in 2011, says its customers include Hertz, Petco, Geico, Kraft Heinz, Engie and Western Digital.
Software Companies, Cybersecurity
Sixth Street Growth and TenEleven also took part in the $700 million round with Carrick Capital and KKR.
“We found the company through our proprietary sourcing,” Madden said of Carrick’s role in Saviynt. “Software companies—including cybersecurity—are our core focus areas.”
Investment giant KKR will make its portion of the investment through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund III.
In other recent financing, Carrick said in October it had led a $31.5 million investment in Veritas Prime, a human capital management and payroll software business.
Then in November it announced a majority investment in Intelligo, a leading provider of pre-investment and pre-engagement background checks and continuous subject monitoring.
Another previous investment was in Kantata, an OC-based software business previously known as Mavenlink and formerly headed by entrepreneur Ray Grainger.
