Scottish Equity Partners leads multi-million funding round for tech company Tyk

James Hirst and Martin Buhr are the brains behind tech outfit Tyk.

Tyk, which is based in London, has sealed the $35 million (£25.4m) growth equity funding round led by new investor SEP, alongside existing investor MMC Ventures.

The firm’s application programming interface (API) management product helps to build “mission-critical systems” in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government. It is used by some of the world’s largest enterprises.

The company aims to double headcount within the next 12 months with plans to increase its UK team and expand its presence in the US to the west coast, and open offices in Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Martin Buhr, chief executive and co-founder of Tyk, said: “APIs are everywhere. Ordered a pizza online? You can thank APIs for that. Just applied for a credit card? That's APIs from start to finish.

“The modern enterprise is at its core an API company, and those that want to survive are expanding their API ecosystems rapidly. With that growth comes an increasing need to manage, monitor and secure that complexity.”

James Hirst, chief operating officer and co-founder of Tyk, added: “We received interest from a number of investors and are delighted to be partnering with SEP for the next stage of our growth.

“Only a small number of enterprises have started their API management journey, and we know the sector has huge potential for growth and we’re excited for what the next few years will bring.”

Martin Brennan, director at SEP, said: “Martin and James have built a world-class team and the addition of this new capital will enable Tyk to accelerate the growth of its API management platform. We are pleased to be supporting the team to achieve their global ambitions.”

Keith Davidson, partner at SEP, joins the Tyk board as a non-executive director.

Since its founding in 2014, Tyk has grown to more than 100 people, with offices in London, Singapore, and Atlanta.

The SEP investment was led by Davidson, Brennan and Taylor Rampton, principal.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions