A U.K.-based AI cybersecurity platform that “learns from the unique patterns of life for each customer in real-time” will soon have a significant presence in North Texas.

Cambridge, England-based Darktrace plans to open a new 7,555-square-foot “deployment center” in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, complemented by a new local corporate office. The moves are part of an ongoing U.S. expansion effort for the company, which operates 12 offices across the country with around 800 employees nationwide. 

Darktrace was acquired last year by Chicago-based PE firm Thoma Bravo for $5.3 billion in cash. The deal closed just months after British tech tycoon Mike Lynch—a co-founder of Darktrace—died along with six others when his tall-masted superyacht Bayesian sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily.

Just weeks before that, Lynch had been acquitted of fraud and conspiracy involving the $11 billion sale of his business software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard.

Co-founded in partnership with former MI5 cyber team member

In 2013, Lynch co-founded Darktrace in partnership with former U.K. intelligence officials, according to Politico, which noted that Stephen Huxter, a high-ranking figure in MI5’s cyber defense team, became a managing director at the company.

Innovations by Darktrace’s R&D teams in Cambridge and in The Hague, Netherlands, have resulted in “over 200 patent applications filed,” the company said. Its 2,400-plus global employees serve nearly 10,000 worldwide customers across all major industries.

Currently, Darktrace is putting a great deal of focus on its U.S. expansion. The new Dallas-area deployment center and corporate office represent the company’s latest investment in the U.S., following recent office upgrades in Austin, Chicago, and the Washington, DC-area. 

Powered by proprietary AI

CEO Jill Popelka

Darktrace offers an ActiveAI Security Platform that’s embedded in the company’s own hardware “appliances” or delivered via the cloud, with a mission to protect organizations from unknown threats. The company’s proprietary AI is said to learn from “the unique patterns of life” for each customer in real-time, securing businesses “across the entire digital estate”— from network to cloud to email.

The platform provides pre-emptive visibility into the customer’s security posture, transforms operations with a Cyber AI Analyst, and detects and autonomously responds to threats in real-time, the company said.

“The U.S. is the world’s largest cybersecurity market and Darktrace is uniquely placed to help organizations protect themselves against novel cyberattacks,” Darktrace CEO Jill Popelka said in a statement, “so we see enormous opportunity for our business to grow its market share in the U.S. and across the Americas.”

Dallas-area center to ship up to 40K ‘appliances’ a year

Expected to be fully operational by September, the new Farmers Branch deployment center will have the capacity to ship up to 40,000 of Darktrace’s appliances a year, the company said, speeding the delivery time of the appliances to U.S. customers by half. 

Beyond serving the company’s private sector clients, the new center in Farmers Branch will will also provide dedicated deployment and physical security capabilities to support the compliance requirements of Darktrace’s customers in the U.S. government, including federal agencies served by Darktrace’s Arlington, Virginia-based affiliate. 

The North Texas facility will meet ISO 27001, NIST, and CMMC standards, the company said, “substantially increasing” storage and production capacity for Trade Agreements Act-compliant hardware, enabling Darktrace Federal. The company said this will “effectively address the growing demand from the U.S. federal government amid an increasingly complex threat landscape.”

Darktrace noted that it recently attained FedRAMP High authorization, the most stringent security authorization within the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) framework. 

For the last reported full financial year (ending 30 June 2024), Darkforce said its U.S. business made up 35% of the company’s annual revenues.

Local congressman welcomes Darktrace

“Texas continues to prove that when you create a business-friendly environment, the best and brightest companies will come,” said U.S. Congressman Jake Ellzey, who represents  Texas’s 6th Congressional District, where the new Darktrace deployment center will be based.

“Darktrace expanding in Farmers Branch is yet another example showing that Texas is open for business and the world is taking notice,” he added in a statement. “In a time when cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, companies like Darktrace, who are investing in not just preventing these attacks but also using AI to anticipate them, are more crucial than ever. We’re proud to have them here in our backyard.” 

New U.S. leadership additions

In addition to announcing its North Texas deployment center and corporate office, Darktrace also named two new U.S.-based leaders: Eve Saltman as chief legal officer & company secretary and Marty Overman as EVP of Sales, Americas. The appointments to the company’s executive committee “will help Darktrace reach and serve even more organizations in the U.S. as they look to combat escalating cyber threats,” the company said—noting that In 2024, the average cost of a U.S. data breach reached $9.4 million, nearly double the global average.

“In addition to these new senior hires and expanded facilities in the U.S.,” CEO Popelka said, “we’re also making strategic investments to deepen our relationships with the leading channel resellers, to enhance our customer experience, to support federal customers with their increasingly complex cybersecurity needs, and to build our brand awareness in this critical market for cybersecurity.”

More on the new leaders

Saltman joins Darktrace from GoPro, Inc., where she served as SVP of corporate and business development, chief legal officer, and secretary. She has also had leadership roles at tech firms including Asana and Siebel Systems (acquired by Oracle) and brings “deep experience of building legal, commercial and compliance strategies that support fast growing international businesses in complex industries,” Darktrace said. Her remit will include all commercial and corporate legal matters, compliance, privacy, risk and governance across the business.   

“As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, Darktrace’s unique approach is more essential than ever,” Saltman said in a statement. “I’m excited to work with Jill and the entire Darktrace team to continue growing Darktrace’s position as a leader in AI-driven cybersecurity.” 

Overman will lead the company’s Americas sales team, building and executing on the Darktrace’s “ambitious” go-to-market plans for the region. She joins from Entersekt, a leading provider of secure customer authentication and digital fraud prevention solutions, where she has been chief revenue officer, overseeing the global sales team and leading the company’s go-to-market strategy. She has also held sales leadership positions at McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, and Imperva. 

“Darktrace has an incredible product set covering the areas where organizations are most vulnerable to cyberattack, including network, email, cloud and operational technology,” Overman said. “I can see the tremendous opportunities to bring this market-leading technology to more organizations across the Americas region and am looking forward to joining this dynamic team.” 

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