Crosspoint Capital Partners Completes Significant Strategic Investment in DigiCert in Partnership with Clearlake Capital and TA Associates
DigiCert provides website security for many of the world’s largest companies;
additional investment enables extension of DigiCert’s leadership into new and growing markets
Also appoints industry veteran Dave Morton as CFO;
Crosspoint’s Greg Clark and Dr. Hugh Thompson join as Directors
Lehi, UT – Dec. 14, 2021 – DigiCert, Inc., (“DigiCert” or the “Company”) the world’s leading provider of TLS/SSL, PKI and IoT solutions, today announced that Crosspoint Capital Partners, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Crosspoint”) has completed an investment in the Company. Crosspoint joins an ownership group that includes Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Clearlake”) and TA Associates (“TA”). The transaction positions the Company for continued growth and cements its position as a global leader in digital trust.
DigiCert also announced today that long-time software industry veteran Dave Morton has joined as its Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Morton brings over 25 years of financial and operating experience in leading technology companies to DigiCert. In his most recent role, Mr. Morton was the CFO at Anaplan. He previously served as the Chief Accounting Officer at Tesla, and also spent over 20 years at Seagate Technologies across many roles, including as EVP and CFO.
In 2019, Clearlake acquired DigiCert in partnership with TA, an investor since 2012. Under their ownership, DigiCert has grown revenue and EBITDA meaningfully through accelerated organic initiatives and highly strategic acquisitions. In addition to its investment, Crosspoint brings significant cybersecurity expertise that will help drive the Company’s next phase of growth. Crosspoint Managing Partners Greg Clark and Dr. Hugh Thompson will join the DigiCert board.
“With the Crosspoint partnership and the addition of Dave to our management team, we are ready to drive the next phase of growth with leaders in cybersecurity on our board and a veteran software CFO,” said John Merrill, CEO of DigiCert. “Organizations around the world are increasingly focused on securing their digital identities across various categories, from ecommerce to online payments and beyond, creating a unique opportunity for DigiCert to become the market-defining company in digital trust, as we already are in web trust. We are excited to take the next step in our journey with our new partners, as well as our long-time partners at Clearlake and TA.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Dave and look forward to partnering with the entire leadership team as the Company aggressively pursues accelerated growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions,” said Behdad Eghbali, Founder and Managing Partner, and Prashant Mehrotra, Partner, of Clearlake. “Over the past several years, DigiCert has invested significantly in its technology platform and new products to address the large and growing markets for digital trust. We’re proud of the progress DigiCert has made and are confident that through the support of Clearlake and our O.P.S. Framework, as well as the sponsorship from our partners TA and Crosspoint, the Company will further establish itself as a leading innovator in security software.”
“DigiCert is an industry leader in the digital security space and a perfect fit for Crosspoint Capital’s investment strategy and operational focus in cybersecurity, privacy and infrastructure software,” said Greg Clark, Managing Partner of Crosspoint Capital. “There is no established de facto standard in digital trust, and we believe DigiCert is uniquely positioned and has the right to capture this opportunity, which affects every aspect of modern society. We appreciate Clearlake and TA’s focus on investing in growth with a track record of creating customer value through investments in organic R&D and accretive M&A, both of which will benefit DigiCert’s large base of customers and partners. We would like to commend John and his team for the excellent progress in recent years and are honored to be invited to work with DigiCert.”
“TA has had the privilege of watching DigiCert establish itself as a leading provider of security solutions since our initial investment in 2012,” said Jason Werlin, a Managing Director at TA. “As the demand for digital trust solutions has increased, the Company has continued to demonstrate its ability to grow and innovate while always prioritizing customer success. We believe the addition of Dave Morton and Crosspoint’s expertise in cybersecurity will help DigiCert to further scale its business. We look forward to ongoing collaboration with the entire leadership team, Crosspoint and Clearlake as DigiCert enters this next phase of growth.”
About DigiCert
DigiCert is the world’s leading provider of TLS/SSL, PKI, and IoT security solutions that enable digital trust for data, devices, code, documents and users. DigiCert is modernizing the way PKI is managed with the DigiCert ONE™ platform. DigiCert ONE reimagines PKI to address all certificate-based security use cases with flexible, scalable and automated workflow managers, including the award-winning TLS certificate manager, CertCentral®. Nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and 98 of the 100 largest global banks choose DigiCert for its digital transformation solutions, including for securing 5G and the post-quantum computing age, and for its five-star customer support. For the latest DigiCert news and updates, visit digicert.com or follow @digicert.
About Clearlake
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is an investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with experienced management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $55 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 300 investments. The firm has offices in Santa Monica and Dallas. More information is available at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @ClearlakeCap.
About Crosspoint Capital
Crosspoint Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused on the cybersecurity, privacy and infrastructure software markets. Crosspoint has assembled a group of highly successful operators, investors and sector experts to partner with foundational technology companies and drive differentiated returns. Crosspoint has offices in Menlo Park, CA and Boston, MA. For more information visit: www.crosspointcapital.com.
About TA Associates
TA is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – the firm invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 550 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $47.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA can be found at www.ta.com
Media contacts: .
For DigiCert:
Jeff Chandler
DigiCert
385-225-1207
jeff.chandler@digicert.com
For Clearlake:
Jennifer Hurson
Lambert & Co.
845-507-0571
jhurson@lambert.com
For Crosspoint:
Jonathan Marino
Prosek Partners
718-536-4990
pro-crosspoint@prosek.com
For TA Associates:
Marcia O’Carroll
TA Associates
617-574-6796
mocarroll@ta.com