Accenture, a Top 250 MSSP, has expanded its managed security services reach through an investment in São Paulo, Brazil-based Tenchi Security, the global technology and professional services company announced February 1.
This is technology M&A deal number 25 that MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2024. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals for 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 listed here. Our 2024 list is coming soon.
The strategic investment was made through Accenture Ventures, a third-party cyber risk management company, enabling Accenture to leverage Tenchi’s software-as-as-service (SaaS) platform to help organizations reduce cyber risks across their supply chain, Accenture said. On its website, Tenchi describes itself as a supply chain information management security company. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Accenture saw something in Tenchi’s SaaS platform that others didn’t offer within the cyber risk management market. Tenchi’s approach, Accenture asserts, provides “a holistic view of an organization’s cyber risk profile through a comprehensive risk assessment.”
CEOs Rank Supply Chain as No. 2 Risk
Accenture notes that “recent cyberattacks have exposed how greater interconnectivity, network access and ecosystem vulnerabilities can affect even the most secure businesses.” Citing its Cyber-Resilient CEO research, Accenture found that 51% of CEOs ranked supply chain as the second highest external risk.
“Supply chain security attacks are happening all too often when security is not embedded at the core of the business and across suppliers,” said Paolo Dal Cin, global lead of Accenture Security. “This is particularly concerning when more than half of executives say their organizations have an insufficient understanding of cyber vulnerabilities in their supply chain.”
To address this issue, Accenture and Tenchi are offering organizations a complete supply chain risk management security solution that will allow them to identify cyber risks faster and assist in addressing cyber threats, according to Dal Cin.
Tenchi CEO Felipe Boucas noted there is a lack of verified, integrated and continuous data and effective remediation across supply chains.
“With Accenture’s deep experience in managed security services, we will help organizations build trust between their business, suppliers and partners while offering ways to improve upon their cybersecurity and the cyber hygiene of the ecosystem as a whole,” he said.
Tenchi Security is part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program that targets emerging technology companies that can help fill strategic innovation gaps for Global 2000 organizations.
Accenture Security’s Expansion
In November 2023, Accenture acquired Innotec Security for an undisclosed sum and became part of Accenture Security. Innotec’s areas of expertise include cybersecurity as a service, cyber risk management and cyber resilience.
The Innotec acquisition comes after Accenture subsidiary Accenture Federal Services (AFS) and Google Public Sector in October 2023 launched a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence for U.S. federal agencies. This center provides federal agencies with technologies, tools and resources that they can use to detect and respond to cyberattacks, the businesses said.
In September 2023, Accenture extended its partnership with CyberArk, an identity security solutions provider. The partnership lets Accenture use CyberArk’s technologies to control and monitor privileged access across its customers’ on-premises, cloud and hybrid infrastructure. Accenture is also using CyberArk’s technologies to protect its own data and systems.
