Darktrace, a global cybersecurity firm that counted the late British tycoon Mike Lynch as a founding investor, is set to acquire Cado Security, a UK-based rival co-founded by an Australian and backed by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Lynch, who died in August 2024 when his family yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, was a founding investor in Darktrace before the company was taken over by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo last year for $US5.3 billion ($8.6 billion).