APRIL 18, 2023

LONDON, April 18, 2023 – Peakstone Growth Partners (“Peakstone”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired a majority stake in Secude, a Microsoft and SAP Partner, and global leader for Zero Trust Data-centric security and Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) software solutions, to support its continued product innovation and international growth strategy. The company’s unique software solution protects sensitive data at rest and in motion across fragmented international supply chains so that corporate “crown jewels” are safe and secure at all times.

“Our market-leading platform enables customers to protect sensitive data that leave SAP and major CAD/PLM environments by collaborating closely with Microsoft’s Purview Information Protection, allowing our growing international enterprise customer base protection and permission enforcement everywhere and in all collaboration processes with partners and across the supply chain, without user interaction,” said Mr. Mario Galatovic, designated CEO of Secude. “We’re delighted to partner with Peakstone, who bring a wealth of operational expertise and domain knowledge to our team and have a strong track record of working with founders of high growth software businesses to help us accelerate international growth. With Peakstone’s shared vision and support, we are excited to expand our offerings and deepen our capabilities to serve the evolving needs of our customers and further amplify the reach of our platform.”

“This is the first investment from Peakstone I, a B2B software specialist growth equity fund, dedicated to partnering with founders, who have patiently built world-class products in rapidly growing categories with secular and resilient growth drivers. We have been impressed by the value enterprise customers across North America, Europe and Asia derive from the Secude platform, its excellent industry reputation and market-leading security capabilities,” said Florian Hofmann, founder and Managing Partner at Peakstone. “Leveraging its deep domain expertise and strong focus on customer value, Secude has built a differentiated, mission-critical software platform. We believe Secude is extremely well-positioned to capitalize on secular tailwinds underpinning growth in the global market for Zero Trust Data-centric security, and we look forward to investing in the platform and partnering with an outstanding and visionary management team to support their continued product innovation and international growth strategy.”

Peakstone is a specialist investor in growth stage B2B software and technology companies in Europe and North America. We partner with founder-owned businesses, often as first institutional investor. Through our capital and expertise, we help to build operations that scale and achieve ambitious growth targets. As operationally focused growth investors, we partner with ambitious management teams to scale and optimize their go-to-market, implement scalable operating systems and processes, and pursue value-accretive acquisitions. We provide capital, hands-on scale-up support and sector expertise, and a vast network of relationships to help transform innovative and fast-growing businesses into lasting, category-defining market leaders. The firm is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.peakstone.pe.

Secude is a Microsoft and SAP Partner, and a global leader for Zero Trust Data-centric security and Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) software solutions. It has been trusted by many Fortune 500 and DAX-listed companies for protecting sensitive data across fragmented international supply chains. Secude’s data-centric security professionals apply their passion and deep domain expertise to provide a holistic approach to protecting priceless Intellectual Property in CAD/ PLM and SAP based collaborations and supply chains. With branches in Europe, North America and Asia, Secude supports customers with the implementation of IT security strategies through a global network. The firm is headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland. For more information, please visit www.secude.com.