Published : 7 years ago, on 01/11/2017

Paladin announces former Carlyle Group Director Nazo Moosa as its new Senior Strategic Partner Europe in a unique collaboration with VT Partners.

The Paladin Capital Group, a US-based venture capital firm and VT Partners, a specialist European technology growth capital firm are collaborating to provide high potential technologies companies – whether they are early stage companies or

 – with a one-stop platform for their funding needs. The collaboration will enable them to combine their complementary skills, knowledge, experience and networks when identifying and supporting European technology firms in a number of important sectors including cybersecurity.

Paladin is a leading cybersecurity focused investment firm with more than $1 billion committed across multiple funds and with headquarters in Washington DC and offices in Luxembourg and London. With a successful track record of investing in cybersecurity companies such Phishme, Digital Shadows, Anomali and Panaseer, Paladin will extend its experts, specialist knowledge and mentorship to founders of high potential European technology companies. As part of this collaboration, Nazo has been named Paladin’s Senior Strategic Partner Europe, alongside her role as Managing Partner, VT Partners.

VT Partners is a recently launched specialist European B2B growth capital firm, founded by ex-Carlyle Group Director, NazoMoosa and former GMT Partners Senior Partner, Natalie Tydeman. With a disciplined and research based approach to investing, VT targets more established, high growth companies across the three themes of data intelligence, cybersecurity and the digitisation of critical industries, such as transport and logistics, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and education, which have been slow to adopt proven technology.

“The leadership of VT Partners has the vision and ability to invest in and manage European B2B companies with the potential to become meaningful on the global stage. Nazo has been investing in European cybersecurity longer than almost anyone else,” said Michael Steed, Paladin’s Founder and Managing Partner. “Our excitement around this effort stems from Paladin’s deep sector expertise and significant experience in closing global cyber and digital technology investments being complemented by Nazo’s proven investment acumen in B2B investments. This collaboration further demonstrates Paladin’s long term and permanent commitment to investing in the EU,” said Steed.

Paladin’s complementary expertise in cybersecurity and critical industries across multiple funds will provide VT Partners with insight into emerging technology trends, opportunities and potential threats from the US market. The relationship will also enable VT Partners to support the expansion of its portfolio companies in the US market via Paladin’s highly experienced on-the-ground investment team and senior industry networks.

NazoMoosa, Managing Partner, VT Partners, explains why the collaboration is so important now: “The digitisation of critical industries including healthcare, energy, transportation and cybersecurity has been an increasingly important area of investment.  More recently, we’ve seen a real excitement around emerging technologies particularly in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics where Europe is leading. But many European businesses do not have access to the appropriate levels of capital and mentorship required to place their business onto a global stage.  We believe that our focused, thematic investment approach, hands-on support and the opportunity to deploy equity cheques of €1-20 million+ provides tremendous benefits to Owner-Managers of high potential European technology companies. VT provides access to specialist knowledge and networks and the right size of capital to enable European tech SMEs to scale up quickly. Through our collaboration with Paladin, we can now also open up the all-important US market for our portfolio companies.”