Gustafsson resigns, Popelka steps in

The Cambridge, England-based company has tapped COO Jill Popelka as its new CEO and tasked her with leading Darktrace following its acquisition by Thoma Bravo, which is expected to close around Sept. 28. Popelka replaces Poppy Gustafsson, who served as CFO after Darktrace was founded in July 2013, became co-CEO in October 2016, and became sole CEO in May 2020 (see: Thoma Bravo to Buy AI Cybersecurity Firm Darktrace for $5.3 Billion).

“Darktrace has been a huge part of my life and identity for over a decade, and I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished,” said Gustafsson. “This challenge has required a huge personal and professional commitment. With Thom Bravo taking over Darktrace and us finding the perfect successor in Jill, the time is right to hand over the reins.”

Darktrace’s Glass Ceiling Keeps Cracking

The move gives Darktrace the unusual distinction of having three consecutive female CEOs at a time when most cybersecurity vendors have not had a female CEO. Nicole Eagan took over as CEO at Darktrace in September 2014, split the responsibilities with Gustafsson in October 2016, and moved to CTO and AI in May 2020, leaving Gustafsson as the company’s sole CEO (see: Darktrace’s Nicole Eagan on How AI Predicts and Prevents Hacker Attacks).

The CEO change comes three and a half months after Thoma Bravo agreed to buy Darktrace for $5.32 billion to accelerate organic growth, enable the company to pursue acquisitions and leverage the private equity firm’s best operating practices. The proposed acquisition comes after Thoma Bravo halted its efforts to buy Darktrace in September 2022 after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on terms (see: Thoma Bravo and Darktrace withdraw from contract due to disagreement on terms).

“Jill is the ideal leader to build on Poppy’s tremendous legacy at Darktrace as the company enters the next phase of its life, given her extensive experience scaling and maturing high-growth companies,” Thoma Bravo Partner Andrew Almeida said in a statement. “She cares deeply about people, about serving clients, and about building a company with a sense of mission and purpose at its core.”

Popelka joined Darktrace’s board in January and stepped down in May when she became COO. Before taking on the day-to-day leadership role at Darktrace, Popelka spent two years as head of enterprise services at Snap. Before that, she spent two and a half years leading strategy, customer success, and the overall health of SAP SuccessFactors as president and COO of the business unit.

“The potential for Darktrace is enormous. Our technology has never been more critical to organizations around the world, and our AI-native capabilities put us at the forefront of the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape,” Popelka said in a statement. “We have a unique platform offering, a broad global customer base, and some of the most talented people working in technology.”

How Darktrace compares to the competition

Darktrace has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years. Sales for the fiscal year ended June 30 increased 26.4% year-over-year to $689.5 million, driven by a stabilized churn environment and more improvements in upselling activity. The company added 936 new customers in the last fiscal year, bringing Darktrace’s customer base to 9,735, and expects that to drive sales in the coming year.

“Poppy is an extraordinary leader who has developed and nurtured one of the UK’s proudest technology success stories,” Gordon Hurst, Darktrace’s CEO, said in a statement. “Under Poppy’s leadership, the company has transformed from a promising collaboration of AI and intelligence experts into a rapidly growing global leader in cybersecurity.”

However, the company’s technology has received mixed reviews from analysts. Forrester rated Darktrace’s network analytics and visibility capabilities 11th out of 13 vendors it evaluated. Forrester praised Darktrace for simplifying the deployment process with its point-and-click capabilities, but said the company’s user interface values ​​showmanship over functionality, with confusing visualizations and limited visibility into network traffic.

Thoma Bravo took advantage of the market turmoil to buy publicly traded security vendors at discount prices, acquiring identity management company SailPoint for $6.9 billion in August 2022, as well as identity and access management companies Ping Identity for $2.8 billion in October 2022 and ForgeRock for $2.3 billion in August 2023. The private equity firm then combined Ping and ForgeRock under the Ping brand.

“Leaving is not an easy decision, but I am confident in doing so because I know I am leaving the company in the most capable hands,” Gustafsson said on LinkedIn. “This has made handing over the reins much easier for me. I know Jill will preserve the best of what makes Darktrace special while bringing the strategic and operational discipline necessary for our next phase of growth.”