Adarma emerges out of ECS after MBO

Security services company Adarma has emerged after an MBO helped the business spin out of the ECS Group.

The business, previously known as ECS Security, has started a fresh chapter after an MBO spearheaded by David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook, with backing from Livingbridge, saw the firm change hands.

Adarma will be building on a heritage that spans two decades, an operation with 250 staff and a strong enterprise customer base. The firm provides a range of security services, including SOC design, build and operation.

David Calder, MD and co-founder of Adarma, said that it had wanted to strike out on its own to have an increased focus on the security space.

“Our decision to create Adarma is part of our desire to focus exclusively on the security space with the aim of becoming the UK market leader for FTSE 250 organisations across a broad range of industries. We are thrilled to receive backing from Livingbridge as we start this new chapter in our journey," he said.

“Typically, our customer base consists of larger organisations who accept that attacks and breaches are inevitable. Security is a priority at board level as well as within Security Operations departments at these organisations. They realise that it is not a case of if, but when they will face critical security incidents and want to be prepared for this," he added.

Nathan Dornbrook, CTO and fellow co-founder of Adarma, said that it would be putting an emphasis on the skills it could bring to bear on a market where shortages of expertise was a pressing issue.

“Our clients tend to have complex environments, with technical and cultural requirements that define them in often unique ways. Our teams are made up of skilled and highly certified practitioners that have deep, real world expertise in working with large organisations,” he said.

The response from Paul Thomson, group chief executive at ECS, was to wish Adarma well viewing the spin-off as a chance for it to also reset the focus.

“Strategically it makes sense for ECS Group and Security to separate, allowing both companies to further focus on their core areas of expertise. For Group, this also enables us to expand our core offerings and expertise in digital transformation in our key markets namely, enterprise IT infrastructure and public cloud, as well as investing heavily to build out other areas of the business," he said.