Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has acquired Exostar, a developer of secure collaboration communications for such highly regulated industries as aerospace and defense, life sciences and healthcare. Financial terms were not disclosed.

This is M&A deal number 232 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2020. See the complete M&A deal list here.

Exostar’s platform allows companies to create secure collaborations with external partners. Key focus areas include supply chain collaboration; identity, credentialing and access; risk management and secure collaboration. Backed by Thoma Bravo, Exostar plans to double down on security opportunities.

Exostar: Key Adopters and Opportunities

Exostar was developed as a joint venture between BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, and Merck. Initially formed as a B2B aerospace and defense industry exchange, the company’s secure platform now serves over 150,000 organizations worldwide.

The acquisition comes at a particularly intriguing time. Hackers increasingly target technology supply chains to hop from one company network to another, often infecting or stealing data from multiple targets. Exostar could be a platform that safeguards supply chain partners from such attacks.

The opportunities don't end there. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and Work From Home (WFH) wave, many highly regulated businesses are seeking to leverage and lock down collaboration platforms like Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. In some ways, Exostar could be a a highly specialized alternative to those mainstream systems.

Thoma Bravo Acquires Exostar: Executive Perspectives

In a prepared statement about the deal, Exostar CEO Richard Addi said:

“Our corporate vision remains unchanged…to be a trusted, innovative leader in secure business collaboration for highly-regulated industries. Thoma Bravo’s strategic investment positions us to more rapidly expand our community and deliver the digital trust that must exist between an enterprise and its suppliers, customers and partners. This transaction reflects the logical next step in our company’s evolution. We can leverage Thoma Bravo’s deep technology and security experience to take full advantage of our unique market position. Together, we plan to accelerate time-to-market for the Exostar suite of solutions that enable global enterprises to execute their mission-critical supply chain and drug development initiatives."

Added Carl Press, principal at Thoma Bravo:

“Exostar’s identity access management and secure collaboration software is utilized by some of the most respected and well-known enterprise customers in aerospace and defense, life sciences and healthcare. The company’s understanding of complex organizations’ procurement and collaboration needs is a key differentiator inherent in its products. We’re thrilled to partner with Richard Addi and the Exostar team to accelerate the company’s innovation and growth over both the near and long term.”

Thoma Bravo: Additional Private Equity Investments

Thoma Bravo's current funds represent more than $35 billion. Within the IT channel, Thoma Bravo's ownership stakes include Barracuda Networks, ConnectWise and SolarWinds, among many other software businesses.