January 11, 2008
Sensor Tech Attracting European VC
Sensor technology has been attracting venture capital in Europe with several deals in recent weeks. We reported the Movea deal earlier this week and the €25M Series B for SensorDynamics in Austria. But there have been a few others.
Back in November, Nordic Venture Partners invested a hefty €12M in Exensor, a Swedish military system vendor specialized in perimeter security systems. Its products use the kind of sensor technology that Scottish startup Pyreos develops.
Edinburgh-based Pyreos has raised $3.8M from Braveheart plc, along with Siemens Technology Accelerator and the Scottish Venture Fund, according to an EE Times article this week.
(Image source: Exensor.se)
Exensor sells systems that include a wireless mesh networking communications package linking its sensor units (that include infra red, acoustic and three other sensors) to a database that detects and counts passing vehicles, humans (and whether or not they are gun-toting), and even animals. It has been winning sales deals in Germany and Finland.
(Image source: Pyreos.com)
Founded in July 2007, Pyreos is commercializing infrared sensor tech that came out of Siemens. Its CEO is Jeff Wright was co-founder of MicroEmissive Displays, which he helped lead from start-up to flotation on the London Stock Exchange, according to the startup's website.
The Pyreos sensor tech is good for motion detection, flame detection, and people counting, it says. The startup claims small size and lower cost, compared to existing IR sensors.
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November 28, 2007
UK's Email Systems Bought By Webroot
Anti-spyware's Webroot is buying UK-based security as a service firm Email Systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merged firm will be called Webroot. Founded 5 years back, Email Systems says it protects an estimated 2.5M email boxes for 1,500 businesses worldwide. It competes with MessageLabs.
In February, 2005 Webroot raised $108M. It has since hired a new CEO and announced its intention to go public. Webroot got its start in fighting malware but has moved to expand to other areas of security.
View - site
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August 01, 2007
Bilbao's Panda Networks Raises Euros 10M
Panda Networks got a lot of attention recently when it was the first company to call attention to a trojan virus that deletes important files and then hijacks the sound card to say "Your system files have been deleted. Sorry." Panda sells enterprise software to prevent malware and viruses from choking PCs.
Today Bilbao, Spain's Panda Networks as raised Euro 10M in new VC funding. HarbourVest Partners and Atlantic Bridge Ventures were joined by return backers Investindustrial and Gala Capital.
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March 12, 2007
Paris' Security Startup SkyRecon Raises $6.5M
SkyRecon Systems has finalized its second round financing at $6.5M dollars, led by Ventech and ACE Management. This second round of fundraising will go to the company's expansion in the US. Skyrecon previously raised 3M Euros. The company counts as customers: Aegis Media, Aviva, Crédit Agricole, Durex, French Ministry of Finance, Lazard Bank, UK Office of Government Commerce.
Read - Skyrecon raises $6.5M (Press Release)
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February 20, 2007
London's ScanSafe To Fight Malware Harder With $15M In Fresh Funds
ScanSafe, a London-based Web security-as-a-service firm, has raised $15M in Series B led by Scale Venture Partners with return backer Benchmark Capital. The company sells security and control over Web and IM by scanning traffic in real-time and blocking malware and unwanted content like gambling and porno before it reaches the corporate network. So it competes with the big security companies but does so with a hosted platform twist. ScanSafe reports spyware was up 254% in 2006 while Web viruses declined 32% in 2006.
The company was co-founded by and is led by a pair of brothers who both came out of investment banking - Eldar and Roy Tuvey.
Visit - site
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October 10, 2006
Londons' TBS Helps The Fendis To Fend Off Counterfeiters
London's TBS has raised $250K from from The Capital Fund. The start-up sells protection for brand names and documents against counterfeiting;
TBS Sells A Tool-box For Anti-Piracy
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September 21, 2006
New Investor For Rotundus' Rolling Robocop
Looks like mobile robots are rolling out a niche for themselves in the building security market. We came across news this week on the Aerospace Corporation website announcing its taking a stake in Swedish startup Rotundus AB to give itself what it calls a "front seat" in the security market. The amount invested was undisclosed.
Ångström, which has contracts with a Canadian satellite manufacturer and Swedish space equipment manufacturers, said it would be delivering microcomponents to two year old Rotundus whose mobile robots are aimed at both space exploration and industrial security surveillance.
The Rotundus Rolling Eyeball
Its apparently robust, motorized surveillance robots were originally developed for Mars exploration, but are now also being honed to deliver security functions at power plants, airports, ports and military sites, the same market that another Euro startup, Berlin-based Robowatch, is targeting with its mobile robots.
Ångström Aerospace looks like it was set up to spin off technology, mainly micro-electromechanical subsystems used in spacecraft and unmanned vehicles, from Swedish research institutes. It has backing from Uppsala University, which owns a stake in Rotundus. RP Ventures, a Swedish venture firm, is also a shareholder in Rotundus.
We like this kind of high-tech wizardry, but we know it’s going to be a challenge to create anything bigger than a niche market for this one, especially considering that the startup's primary strategic investor so far is not an established name in the security surveillance industry.
Read - Ångström Aerospace Corporation acquires an equity stake in the mobile security robot company Rotundus (press release)
Read - German firm bring robocops to makret (a:c euro)
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Spreading Of Netnoldege's PAIN Financed
French startup Netnoledge has developed software to make Internet file transfers and communications more secure based on the public key encryption (PKI) protocols. It is the kind of software that enables privacy, authentification, integrity and non-repudiation (PAIN) of data and email exchanges via the Internet.
Screenshot From Netnoledge Showing Non-repudiable Transfers In Progress
The two year old company, which is a Delaware-registered company with offices in Sceaux, France, announced that it raised a first round of financing from DGME FINANCES of an undisclosed amount this week. The new money is for R&D and to expand its efforts in the UK and German markets.
A couple of Swiss banks and French research institutes are the types of organizations that are its early customers, according CEO and founder Michel Doric. He told us that Netnoledge launched the product in February and he's forecasting for end of 2007 sales of €5M.
We checked with one of our VC contacts who has had some healthy liquidity events, as they say, with security software companies over the last ten years and he confirms that PKI and security software in general is still a "vibrant" market.
And that it is indeed possible for a PKI company to reach the kinds of revenues Doric is forecasting if, for example, it manages to get a few large institutions as customers.
PKI has been around for a while and there are products on the market from names like Entrust and DigiCert. What makes this one different is its claim that it is the only one to offer a solution where no third party certificate authority is required.
We don't know the other products well enough in this market to validate that, but what we do see is that Netnoledge is smart in the way that it is securing early stage cashflow.
It is making it easy for companies large and small to make a decision to buy. Customers are offered three ways to purchase: traditional software licensing, full rental model, or subscrition to a hosted PKI platform from Netnoledge.
The latter two sales models mean that it can sign customers up without having to wait until several layers of management in the customer organization agree to write a big cheque for a full-blown client-server software license. That strategy can give startups that all-important inflow of cash to keep it going until it makes some long term licensing deals.
The company founder told the alarm:clock euro that Netnoledge had been self-financed until DGME stepped in. It is currently building up channel partners and OEM deals several countries, including the US.
Read - NETNOLEDGE réalise une première levée de fonds auprès de DGME FINANCES (prminds)
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June 13, 2006
Employee Monitoring In a Box
In what 3i is calling a home-grown solution, it is, along with Scottish Equity Partners and SGAM Alternative Investments, investing in a £3M Series A round for Chronicle Solutions.
The five year old startup makes a server-grade appliance, which captures and indexes all types of user activities in a network in real time, including email, Instant Messanger, WebMail, Blogs and VOIP calls.
Looks innocent, watches and records everything you do
Read - 3i backs Chronicle with £3m financing and CEO (3i press release)
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June 02, 2006
Spanish VoiceTrust Rival Starts Up
For a university spinoff, Spain's Agnitio has managed to stir up the interest of not only the Spanish, but also Chilean, Columbian, German, and Korean police and justice departments.
Not because it is up to something sinister, but because the two year old spinoff of Spain's Universidad Politécnica de Madrid develops voice identification and voice verification software.
Intelligence agencies and police forces are signing up to trial and in some cases buy its voice verification software, which they use in the same way that they use fingerprints to confirm the identity of a suspect.
And in another market, Spain's BBVA, one of the country's largest banks, is using a product from Agnitio to authenitcate employees that have to reset their passwords.
The password reset business puts it in direct competition with VoiceTrust, which so far has been pionnering that market niche. The German startup recently raised a €2M round of finance from some well-known German business angels.
Agnition has raised seed financing from a Spanish venture fund, Webcapital, which belongs to finance group, Riva Y Garcia in Barcelona.
The public sector is one market they could exploit with this tech. Longer term we could imagine a mass market if oice identification and verification solutions get adopted by the likes of online banks and enterprise network access managers.
It would be less cumbersome and cheaper than issuing chipcards and electronic password generators to end users. With that in mind, we expect that we'll be hearing more about Agnitio.
Read - Webcapital Toma participacion (Yahoo Finanzas)
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May 16, 2006
Yoggie Raises $1.8M
Yoggie Security Systems, founded by Israel-based serial entrepreneur, Schlomo Touboul, who co-founded Finjan Software, has raised a $1.8M startup round. The firm said the financing round could be "extended".
The investor group is comprised of New York-based Early Bird Capital; a group of private investors from Silicon Valley, headed by Silicom Ventures; and a group of Israeli private investors.
The funds were raised to complete R&D and support marketing and sales efforts.
Yoggie is in stealth mode. It was founded in October 2005.
Read - Yoggie Security Systems completes a $ 1.8M round of investment.
Read Yoggie Profile (Tornado Insider)
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April 19, 2006
VC-backed Grisoft Acquires German Anti-Malware Startup
Some security software consolidation underway. Czech Republic-based Grisoft, an anti-virus software developer, has acquired Ewido Networks, a two year old anti-malware provider, based in Germany.
This looks to be the first of several acquisitions, as Grisoft recently raised $52M from Intel Capital and Enterprise Investors, a fund that targets Eastern and Central European businesses.
Read - AAnti-Viren Spezialist GRISOFT übernimmt Anti-Malware Experten ewido networks
Read - GRISOFT Acquires Anti-malware Expert Ewido Networks
