Beech Tree Private Equity has announced an investment in CovertSwarm, a leading red team-as-a-service and cyber-attack simulation platform. Beech Tree’s investment will support CovertSwarm’s ambitious organic growth strategy and accelerate the development of its proprietary “Offensive Operations Center” software.
CovertSwarm was founded by Anders Reeves in 2020 with the aim of radically redefining how enterprise security risks are discovered. CovertSwarm’s mission is to continually outpace the cyber threats faced by its clients, using a constant cyber-attack subscription methodology.
The business employs a “Swarm” of multi-skilled ethical hackers spread across the globe which, supported by its proprietary Offensive Operations Center (“OOC”) software, enables CovertSwarm to provide constant testing of its customer’s infrastructure, through a combination of digital, physical and social attacks to spot weaknesses well before the “bad actors” do.
This innovative approach is disrupting the traditional penetration testing market, which is often narrowly scoped and only gives assurance at a given point in time. For fast past, dynamic enterprises that are constantly evolving, the traditional penetration test is simply no longer fit for purpose.
The business recently announced the launch of its OOC software to the world – which aims to challenge costly ‘point’ solutions by providing immediate value to organisations, enabling them to gain a comprehensive understanding of their external attack surface in real-time, without incurring any costs.
This groundbreaking approach bridges the gap between Attack Surface Management products, SaaS-identified vulnerabilities, and the ability to validate and explore risks via CovertSwarm’s in-house red team. With just a simple ‘one click’ submission, organisations can request CovertSwarm ethical hacker testing and targeted red team attacks, streamlining the cyber risk lifecycle and enhancing security measures.
Anders Reeves, CEO at CovertSwarm said: “We have been thrilled with the growth that we have achieved since we launched in 2020 and we see this investment from Beech Tree as the natural next step in our growth journey, allowing us to scale up even faster, accelerate our development plans for our OOC platform and ultimately ensure that we remain one step ahead of the “bad actors” out there”.
Commenting on the transaction, Adam Rudd, Partner at Beech Tree, said: “It was clear from the first time that we met with Anders, and his business partner Luke Potter, that they were building something really special with CovertSwarm. The blend of human expertise from the Swarm of ethical hackers mixed with the power of the OOC software is a unique and compelling proposition in the market, which is changing the way enterprises think about cyber-attack services. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Anders, Luke, and the rest of the CovertSwarm team and are excited about the future plans for the business.”
