Edinburgh tech start-up Cyan Forensics nets fresh funding

An Edinburgh-based start-up that has developed forensic technology to help catch criminals faster has raised almost £1 million in a fresh round of funding.

Paul Devlin, investment manager at Mercia Fund Managers and CEO of Cyan Forensics, Ian Stevenson. Picture: Chris Watt

Cyan Forensics’ technology finds “time-critical” digital evidence in minutes instead of days, helping police in sensitive investigations such as child sexual exploitation and counter-terrorism. The business is currently working with a number of law enforcement agencies.

It has closed a £900,000 investment round led by Mercia Fund Managers, bringing its total funding to nearly £1.5m since it was founded just two years ago.

The latest funding round has seen American private investor Don Macleod, a director of Broadcom and former chief executive of National Semiconductor, join existing investors Mercia Fund Managers and the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), which both provided funding following their initial investments.

Cyan Forensics, which operates in a market that is expected to be worth almost $10 billion (£7.6bn) by 2022, said it had achieved significant progress with its range of digital forensics products and now has a team of ten highly skilled staff, including former law enforcement and military professionals.

Ian Stevenson, chief executive of Cyan Forensics, said: “This latest round of investment will enable us to take full advantage of the market opportunities here in the UK and start developing our business internationally, as well as exploring other opportunities for our technology in cyber security.

“The whole team is excited about the success we’re seeing in our first operational deployments and the opportunities in front of us to contribute to public safety.”

Paul Devlin, investment manager at Mercia, said: “We’re delighted to continue to support Cyan Forensics. This is the latest seed investment, having first backed the team as a spin-out from Edinburgh Napier University, they are making excellent progress as they begin to scale up.

“We believe the business has the potential to make a real difference to the speed at which agencies are able to investigate highly sensitive crime using its innovative forensic technology. The customer base of government and law enforcement agencies is highly impressive and places the company in a great position for future growth.”

Kerry Sharp, director of the SIB, said: “Scottish Enterprise has supported Cyan Forensics from an early stage and it is great to see the progress that has been achieved to develop and commercialise new technology in the area of digital forensics. This round of investment will provide the capital to start expansion internationally and into adjacent markets. We look forward to continuing to work with the company, both from an investment perspective and through our account management support, to deliver its long-term growth ambitions.”