Former Babble CEO Matthew Parker says he wants to “build another really big business” with new cybersecurity services venture Xypher.
Having helped construct two £100m-revenue businesses at Lumesse and Babble, Parker was last week unveiled as CEO of Limerston Capital-backed Xypher.
It has already amassed around 170 staff and revenues of £20m on the back of three quickfire acquisitions made last year.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Parker said he’d chosen cyber as the backdrop for his next project partly because of its 20%-plus organic growth rate.
“As I started to think about what I wanted to do next, one of the things that was really important to me was going into a space where there was the potential to go and build another really big business,” he said.
“I’m not an inventor, or a market maker. Where I add value is in allowing businesses to scale. I needed a space where that’s possible.”
“We’re not a VAR”
Xypher is built on three acquisitions made last year in the form of DigitalXRAID (July), CyberCrowd (August) and Aristi (December).
Other sizeable cybersecurity services outfits it’s likely to rub shoulders with include NCC Group, Orange Cyberdefense, Integrity360 and Bridewell.
Predominantly a services business, it has three main activities in the form of cyber consulting & penetration testing, digital forensics, e-discovery & incident response, and managed SOCs, Parker said.
“We’ve got a super-interesting part of our business that does cyber escape rooms as leadership development tools inside organisations. That gets them to think about how they deal with each other in crisis situations,” he said.
“Is there resale of third-party product? Yes, but that’s only as part of doing something else. The business isn’t a VAR.
“Depending on who you ask and how you qualify it, the cyber services market is growing at between 15% and 30% – the businesses we’ve put together are all growing.”
Although the majority of Xypher’s revenues are direct, the fastest-growing part of its business is through the channel, Parker said.
“I love building things”
Parker left cloud comms outfit Babble at the start of 2025 to focus on his efforts raising money for motor neurone disease (MND).
Was the plan always to return to an exec role?
“With the benefit of hindsight, it was always likely I’d go back and do something, if the right thing appeared,” he said.
“I love building things and enabling other people to build things. If you look at the exposure we built around MND last summer, and the stuff we’ve got planned for this year, that’s about building.
“There were no shortage of things I could have gone and done, but I was pretty clear in my head about what it would take me to commit.
“I was asked the question last year: ‘what are you looking for’? I said, ‘l don’t know, but I’ll know when I see it’ – and Xypher was exactly that.”
“I’m fascinated”
Parker said he is “fascinated” by developments in the cyber space.
“Not a day goes by where the main media doesn’t have a headline with the word ‘cyber’ in it,” he said.
“We’ve all heard about Jaguar Land Rover. Most of us have heard about Marks and Spencer. Some of us have heard about the Co op and about Harrods. And then if you really understand what’s going on, some of us will have put two and two together with what happened with the luggage system at Heathrow.
“So there’s five brands we all know that had material cyber incidents in the first 10 months of 2025. And then when I talk to the people who are running the businesses I’m now helping, it’s all about not letting the bad guys win. It’s front and centre of what people are thinking.
“If you put all of those pieces together, it’s a fantastic opportunity to work with a bunch of people that I really like and who really give a s***t.
“You’ve got an opportunity with a partner who I really like in Limerston, in a market where there’s an opportunity to do something material.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
