Dave DeWalt (NightDragon) and John Walters (Nextgen Group)
Nextgen Group has stepped up its cyber security game through striking a strategic partnership with investment and advisory firm NightDragon.
The partnership will see Nextgen’s oSpace unit tap into NightDragon’s group of companies, developing their presence in the Australian and New Zealand (A/NZ) market with support and services, providing vendors with a modern digital sales and channel management as-a-service.
The proprietary program is designed to drive hyper scale for the companies while also delivering cyber security innovation to customers across A/NZ.
NightDragon focuses on growth and late-stage investments within the cyber security, safety, security and privacy industries, and has about 25 companies on its books, with plans to add a further 15 in the next two years.
“This formal relationship with NightDragon builds on our focus, capability, and growth in the cyber security market. As a group, we have built the foundation of our cyber and data tesilience practice on highly trained and experienced ex-military operatives and engaged the next generation of cyber security vendors to ensure the channel and customers have the right solutions to combat the dynamic market and rapidly changing threat vectors,” Nextgen CEO John Walters said.
“Engaging with NightDragon’s current and future portfolio will add significant value to this position, ensuring that the Australian and New Zealand market has a combination of the latest market leading cyber security solutions.”
In a discussion with ARN, Walters said it was part of his vision to be able to approach venture capital firms with solution to help their portfolio of companies tap into new markets such as Australia and New Zealand with its two-tier model.
NightDragon CEO Dave DeWalt said throughout his own experience, he recognised the powerful alignment of distribution and partnerships.
“We view Australia and New Zealand as critical markets to the cyber security industry and an essential piece of global innovation,” DeWalt said.
“We were drawn to Nextgen’s growth trajectory, high level of service and incredible customer base, each backed by their deep local cyber expertise. We look forward to partnering with them to drive incredible impact and growth for NightDragon portfolio companies in the region,” he said.
DeWalt said it has been building a powerful engine globally through a series of partnerships to fit into its aim of investing in and hyperscaling new technologies.
“We’re building a reciprocal gateway between Nextgen and NightDragon where we can also learn about the innovation that’s coming through the Australian market and size of the market is really important for us to learn and find innovation,” he said.
“I see it as very strategic fit for a lot of reasons, not just helping valuations of companies we already invested in but learning and growing together with ways to bring lots of tech in a better way to the rest of the world.”
Nextgen Group is the newest addition to the NightDragon Masters Partnership Program, a collection of master service agreement partnerships (MSA) that include preferred terms for NightDragon companies.
The two organisations will work together to identify NightDragon companies with a strong product and market fit for the region and apply the MSA framework to help them implement go-to-market strategies and solutions.
Through the new partnership, NightDragon companies will receive elevated levels of support, as well as preferred onboarding and enhanced levels of enablement.
Additionally, they will receive ongoing support from oSpace, including business development, pre-sales support, transactional support and training and certification, as well as assistance with value proposition creation and vetted introductions to key channel partners in the region.
The partnership also expands NightDragon's capabilities under its go-to-market business unit, a dedicated set of playbooks, programs and partnerships in its proprietary NightScale platform to help accelerate its portfolio's go-to-market capabilities.
Nextgen’s go-to-market support, services and advisory capabilities will complement existing go-to-market partnerships.
