Substantial return from hardsec pioneer Garrison

Garrison is a global leader in hardsec, revolutionising ways of working for some of the most security-conscious parts of government by delivering innovative, cross-domain solutions that help drive digital transformation and user enablement.

The threat of web-based risks, including ransomware attacks, phishing, and other forms of malware are all areas that Garrison protects its customer base—primarily governments—from.

The company was sold to global high-assurance cybersecurity leader Everfox in June 2024, representing an excellent outcome for both Garrison and for IP Group

Garrison was founded back in 2014 by David Garfield (CEO) and Henry Harrison (Chief Scientist) to develop hardware security (hardsec) concepts for the commercial world. The idea was that by using hardware logic and electronics to implement security defenses, rather than through software alone, you could create a greater level of security defense against threats. Their mission was to enable users to view any browser content without it impacting their company’s security.

Jon Edington, Partner at IP Group was first introduced to Garrison by a former colleague, the company’s innovative technology piqued his interest. 

IP Group backed Garrison in 2015 and over the following nine years, over the course of five investment rounds, invested a total of £13.7m.

We were joined by co-investors Dawn Capital, BGF, and NM Capital.

Against the backdrop of rising and increasingly costly cyber risks  such as ransomware and phishing attacks, Garrison developed a highly effective and unique technology that enabled users to access all content on the web without any risk of exposing their organisation to cyber-attack. 

Instead of relying on a traditional threat detection-based model, Garrison uses a revolutionary technique to place a gap at the most fundamental electronic level between the internet and the end-user’s device. This means that malicious web content never comes into contact with the user or their organisation’s IT systems. 

Ultra-secure government and military customers, including the UK Government and the US Federal Government were among the first to benefit from the technology; before the company expanded into key commercial accounts including Lloyds Banking Group, BBC and Vodafone due to its affordability and the increasing cyber threat they were facing.