Investors spy value as Darktrace soars
A CYBER security firm advised by former MI5 and CIA spymasters saw its share price surge on its stock market debut yesterday.
Shares in Darktrace were priced at 250p ahead of its London listing, valuing the company at £1.7billion.
But the price soared, closing the day up nearly a third at 330p.
While up sharply yesterday, Darktrace had scaled back its price range for the debut.
At one stage, it had been expected to price its IPO at up to £3.6billion.
Darktrace was founded in 2013 by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge, artificial intelligence experts and cybersecurity specialists from GCHQ.
In December, it announced it was in partnership with CyberFirst, a programme led by the National Cyber Security Centre – a part of GCHQ – aimed at inspiring young people to develop cyber security skills.
One of its early backers was tech entrepreneur Michael Lynch, who played a key role in building the company and was on its board until 2018.
He is fighting a US extradition request to face fraud charges related to the sale of Autonomy, a software company he founded and led, to Hewlett-Packard. He is also waiting for the verdict of a multi-billion dollar civil claim by HP at the High Court. He denies the charges.
Darktrace chief executive Poppy Gustafsson, 38, said: “Today is just the beginning.”
Her stake in the company was worth more than £9million after yesterday’s debut.
Lynch and his wife own holdings worth a combined £363million. Gustafsson, who like many of the senior management team previously worked at Autonomy, insisted investor sentiment was not affected by the Lynch association.
She said: “Ultimately whilst Mike is a visionary technologist and was an early investor in Darktrace, he’s not involved in the day-to-day running of the business.”