Digital Shadows: London and San Francisco cyber security firm raises $26m in funding round

The cyber security firm's investment will be used to bolster programmes aimed at searching the dark web

Digital Shadows identifies threatens from the dark web, social media and crime forums (REUTERS)

A London and San Francisco-based cyber security firm, has raised $26m (£19m) in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures, an early backer of Zoopla and LOVEFilm, to support its expansion into markets such as Asia.

Digital Shadows uses data analytics and human analysis to monitor and identify threats to companies from the dark web, social media and crime forums, and helps companies to protect themselves. It received which seed investment in 2011.

Eileen Burbidge, partner at early investor Passion Capital and Digital Shadows’ investor director told Reuters that the company had expanded across Europe and the US.

“Taking the proposition to Asia is the next logical step,” she said on Wednesday.

The company said it intends to use the investment to bolster its main product, SearchLight, which is an analytics programme that can monitor information in 30 languages.

Alastair Paterson, chief executive and co-founder of Digital Shadows, described the funding round as “a huge milestone”.

The Government’s Minister for Digital, Matt Hancock, said the latest round of funding for Digital Shadows suggests the momentum of British tech “is strong” and cements the UK as “the place to start and grow a tech business”.

The UK attracted £6.8bn in tech investment in 2016 from venture capital and private equity firms, more than any other European country and dwarfing its closest rival France, which raked in £2.4bn last year, according to Tech City UK.

And London has defended its reputation as the tech capital of Europe despite the uncertainty surrounding Brexit this year.

Venture capital firms pumped more than £1.1bn into companies between January and June, more than into any other European city including Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam.

During that time, London received more than double the amount of investment received by Berlin.