LEADING Scottish cyber-security software specialist ZoneFox has closed its £3.6 million Series A funding round – its first significant venture capital financing – and is now looking to triple its headcount and move into a new headquarters.
ZoneFox, which is based in Edinburgh, secured the investment from the Scottish business angel investment syndicate Archangels in the biggest round it has led since its formation in 1992, with co-investment from the Scottish Investment Bank – the investment arm of Scotland’s main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise – and Scottish Borders-based TriCap. It follows the £2.5m in seed funding the company has taken since 2010.
ZoneFox provides world-class security systems that effectively combat the growing issue of insider threats to businesses across the financial, pharma, gaming and other business sectors. Its customers include healthcare firm Craneware, Zenith Bank and Rockstar Games, the creator of Grand Theft Auto.
The company recently launched a new machine-based learning solution, called ZoneFox Augmented Intelligence (AI), which is the most advanced of its kind to be developed in the UK. It has been created over a period of six years and is targeted at a wide range of business sectors.
This funding will be used to grow the business over the next year and beyond. As well as continued product development and innovation, ZoneFox will triple its headcount to 30 staff by the end of 2017, move into a new HQ in Edinburgh and open a London office, where an extension of its sales and tech team will be based.
The funding announcement comes after a strong 12 months for ZoneFox, which is headed up by Dr Jamie Graves, a PhD graduate from Edinburgh Napier University. The firm grew by 400 per cent in revenue terms and appointed former BT and O2 board director, Steve Davies, as chairman. It also won two Scottish Cyber-Security Awards, at their inaugural ceremony in Edinburgh, for International Contribution to Cyber-Security and the overall Champion of Champions trophy.
Graves, ZoneFox CEO, said: “ZoneFox has been working exceptionally hard over the last six years to develop a product that will provide the modern enterprise with a truly 21st century cyber-security solution. Insider threats are a serious problem for global enterprise. Such is the sophistication of these attacks and the methods used by cyber-criminals, the human mind alone can no longer be expected to monitor and combat such threats.
“We have established a strong reputation and generated a lot of interest from some global organisations, which have in turn become clients. Having the funding and support of Archangels, the Scottish Investment Bank and TriCap will allow us to continue to grow and develop ground-breaking solutions that will protect businesses.”
Niki McKenzie, Archangels investment director, added: “Archangels’ investors were keen to lead this round of follow on funding in an area that is currently underserved. Customers using ZoneFox report that the product is helping them to shape more robust, tailored and effective IT policies, alerting them to security threats from within their own walls.”
The ground-breaking and sophisticated machine learning technology developed by ZoneFox provides rapid insights that are critical for helping businesses to establish a strong security posture, all from a single dashboard.
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