We are Europe's leading specialist early stage investors in security and resilience. Our brilliant portfolio Founders leverage our unique network and sector expertise, benefiting from everything we’ve learned about what it takes to achieve escape velocity in this uniquely challenging sector. We focus on supporting our portfolio to reach early customers, meet other investors, and build long-term key strategic relationships. Our team has deep expertise in this sector, combining national security experience with nearly a decade working with the founders of enterprise security startups. We were the first investors in companies like Immersive Labs, Tessian, and some of the most exciting young companies in the UK, US and Israel.

CyLon Ventures

Sarus Select Capital manages investments and provides investment advisory services.

Sarus Select Capital

The UCL Technology Fund is dedicated to investing in intellectual property commercialisation opportunities arising from UCL’s world-class research base, focusing in particular on the physical and life sciences. The Fund supports UCL in achieving the full potential of innovations that have prospects for outstanding societal and market impact, right through the development journey from initial proof of concept to practical commercial application.

UCL Technology Fund

The stated aim of LCIF is not to fund London tech businesses that otherwise would not get funded but rather to enable those who can raise, to raise significantly more so that they have a sufficient money, time and resources to prove their business model. This way London based tech startups will be more able to raise their next round of funding and thereafter become the great tech companies that London so wants and requires. The London Co-Investment Fund was launched by the Deputy Mayor of London on the 4th December at City Hall. LCIF six co-investment partners has been selected based on their excellent track records of investing and supporting early stage tech businesses in London.

London Co-Investment Fund

Ascension is an early-stage VC built by exited entrepreneurs to back the next generation of tech and impact founders. Run by an experienced and diverse team of successful entrepreneurs, we have been relentlessly dedicated to finding the UK’s best Seed-stage startups since 2014. Ascension benefits from the active industry connections essential for the sourcing and development of deal-flow and due diligence. The team has co-invested with the UK’s leading angels and VCs, key to securing follow-on funding as the portfolio businesses move to their next stage of growth. We believe in building an inclusive, community driven brand that can benefit the wider UK tech ecosystem and strive to work with conviction, integrity, humour, and humility.

Ascension

Every year they invest £100,000 each in up to 20 early-stage startups using the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to build great products and businesses that solve real world problems. In exchange for the investment, they look to receive 5-10% equity. We’re able to lead rounds and help startups raise more through introductions to their network of angels and VCs.

AI Seed

M12 - Microsoft’s venture fund, invests in early-stage enterprise software companies with a focus on AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, developer tools, vertical SaaS, and Web3/Gaming. Since 2016, M12 has invested in over 100 companies, helping startups accelerate growth with unparalleled access to Microsoft.

M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund

Amadeus Capital is a global technology investor that invests in technology companies at all stages, from seed to venture buyout; they also buy stakes from other investors or founders, to ensure that companies and entrepreneurs have the runway they need to succeed. They invest in a broad variety of sectors including enterprise and infrastructure software, consumer and business services, medical technology and healthcare IT, and cleantech and resource efficiency. It has the imagination to see where new businesses can be created and the technical insight, operational experience and global network to help entrepreneurs make their vision a reality. The Company was founded in 1997 and since has backed more than 130 companies and raised over $1bn for investment.

Amadeus Capital Partners

Notion is an entrepreneur-led venture capital firm that focuses on high potential businesses in the Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) markets. It is an early-stage venture fund that focuses mainly on technology and cloud computing markets. The firm helps European tech companies fulfill their potential and achieve a massive scale. Notion invests early when it can build strong relationships and help to shape the future success of its companies. Notion Capital was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in London, England.

Notion Capital

UCLB is the commercialisation company of UCL and its partner NHS Trusts. They bring to market truly world-leading, world-changing technologies, innovations that have a real and positive impact on people’s lives. UCLB the access point to the wealth of innovation and intellectual property emanating from UCL and partner hospitals including University College Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Royal Free Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital. They offer a number of services to assist the technology development process, from consultancy through to collaborative research, IP licensing and the creation of spinout companies and joint ventures to maximise the commercial potential of new discoveries, materials and processes.

UCLB

Nationwide Building Society is a commercial bank that serves as a building society, savings provider, and mortgage lender. The bank provides a diverse range of financial services, including savings, mortgages, current accounts, credit cards, investments, and loans.

Nationwide

AlbionVC supports visionary founders with long-term capital and scale-up expertise. Founded in 1996, today we are partners to UK early-stage B2B software and healthcare companies. AlbionVC manages c. $1 billion of venture funds, currently invested in over 50 companies. AlbionVC is the technology investment arm of Albion Capital Group LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

AlbionVC

Pentland Group has been proudly supporting people to build the businesses of the future since 1932. Pentland Ventures is the Group’s direct investments division. We aim to combine the conviction of a venture capital fund, the financial discipline of a private equity firm, the operational expertise of a strategic investor and the long-term outlook and values of a fourth-generation family business.

Pentland Ventures

Conviction is a syndicate of global investors pursuing early stage, SaaS based disruptive tech opportunities. Conviction invests exclusively in post-revenue businesses that are disrupting their domestic markets and show the potential to grow into global enterprises with $100m revenue lines.   The Conviction partnership is led by founding shareholder Andrew Jenkins, who has invested in disruptive technologies for 10 years, most notably Mimecast, which is now Nasdaq listed at over $2bn.    Andrew is supported by Jeremy Middleton CBE, Managing Director of successful private investment company Middleton Enterprises Limited, and co-founder of home emergencies repairs business HomeServe plc, now a FTSE 250 company valued at over £2.5bn.

Conviction VC

They offer deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card services. Wells Fargo is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company with operations worldwide.

Wells Fargo

Intesa Sanpaolo is a banking group that specializes in wealth management, protection, advisory, and digital orientation. Their products and services include accounts, cards, loans, mortgages, insurance, digital payments, retirement planning, investments, and consulting. It was founded by the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI.

Intesa Sanpaolo

ACT Venture Partners (ACT VP) is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage deep-tech startups. ACT VP invested in 25 startups in total. ACT's investment philosophy is to identify early-stage ventures and back technical founders with visions and abilities to transform a market or an industry. ACT's target entrepreneurs develop breakthrough products and technologies, establish new market footholds or pursue novel business models.

ACT Venture Partners

Sarus Capital Management is a global asset management firm focused on investment opportunities in the public and private markets of Indochina.

Sarus Capital

Logo Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm, investing in innovative high growth technology startups with a potential to scale globally.  We partner with exceptional teams with bold ideas and aim to build the future through technology together with them. We focus on the CEE, Baltic and Turkey region and support companies as they transform into established players within their industry.

Logo Ventures

Terra VC is investing in deeptech across the globe and specializing in seed, series A.

Terra VC

Neva SGR, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and wholly owned by the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, plans and manages investment funds for professional investors interested in seizing diversification and high-yield opportunities offered by Venture Capital investments. Neva SGR can count on Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center’s and Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s strength, financial resources, know-how and network of relationships, a unique source of value on the market.  Neva SGR is the perfect blend of strength, reputation and stability of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and the best practices of international venture capital firms. Neva SGR aims to boost the Italian economy through new technologies and to be market maker of the VC asset class of venture capital in Italy.

Neva SGR

Evenlode Foundation

Hazy

Gridcog is an energy transition planning, tracking, and optimization software company. The startup's intelligent technology platform facilitates the simulation, optimization, and tracking of multi-market, multi-site, and multi-asset energy projects. They support the development of more energy-efficient, renewable, zero-carbon communities with solar, storage, heat pumps, and EV charging.

Data has never been more valuable. But with growing privacy demands and tightening regulations, most of the world’s data is locked away and unusable. For businesses to make better decisions, develop new technologies and deliver more value for customers, they need data they can actually use. They need to set their data free to do more.  Hazy is pioneering the new data. We’re the world’s leading synthetic data company, re-engineering enterprise data so that it can be:  - Shared without restrictions - data that can move freely, without restriction, to where it’s needed most in businesses and society - Used without limits - data that’s reliable, safe and easy for people and businesses to use to solve problems and create new value. - Trusted without question - data that’s open, transparent and trusted by people, businesses and society.

Hazy leverages advanced AI/ML techniques to generate smart synthetic data that helps to remove privacy and compliance issues from sensitive raw data. The company trains its advanced generative algorithms with differential privacy to understand and extract signals in data and generate synthetic data to safeguard privacy. It allows users to conduct data analysis, monetize data, or share data freely from governance restrictions without compromising user privacy.

New data privacy regulations have opened up space for a new wave of compliance-focused startups.

Digital Privacy Tools

Hazy (acquired by SAS)

SAS Acquires Hazy to Strengthen Synthetic Data and AI Capabilities

To enhance SAS' Data Maker platform and allow customers to simulate multiple future scenarios. This will offer benefits such as faster time-to-market for AI projects through synthetic datasets, increased data privacy, and cost savings in data collection.

The toolkit to build machine learning applications at scale

Machine Learning Infrastructure

Platforms that generate artificial data that mimics the characteristics of real data, which is then used to train ML models at scale.

Gridcog

Quantexa

Virescent Ventures

Hazy leverages advanced AI/ML techniques to generate smart synthetic data that helps to remove privacy and compliance issues from sensitive raw data. The company trains its advanced generative algorithms with differential privacy to understand and extract signals in data and generate synthetic data to safeguard privacy. It allows users to conduct data analysis, monetize data, or share data freely from governance restrictions without compromising user privacy.Hazy’s software comprises three primary components: the synthesiser, hub, and client. The synthesiser trains and evaluates generative models, the hub acts as the web-based management interface, control plane and generator registry, and the client works with generators.&nbsp;Key customers and partners&nbsp;Hazy serves customers across the financial services, technology, automobile, government, and software sectors. Notable customers as of September 2024 included Accenture, BMW Group, and Nationwide.

OneTrust provides compliance solutions that leverage AI tools and automation across all areas of privacy compliance. The company’s AI-powered solution sees widespread use, providing automation in the areas of data discovery, data subject rights management, consent management (with a user-facing preference center for greater control), data protection impact assessments, third-party risk management, incident response reporting, and monitoring.The company also provides regulatory research software that companies can use to train staff and even benchmark their own privacy programs. The company’s Government Records Request Automation solution helps government organizations intake requests, automate data discovery and redaction, and provide a secure two-way communication portal that demonstrates compliance with FOIA, PRR, and the Privacy Act. OneTrust’s products were backed by over 200 patents as of September 2024.OneTrust has strengthened its position in the digital privacy space through several acquisitions in recent years. In March 2021, OneTrust acquired DocuVision, an AI-powered data redaction platform to bolster its data subject rights capabilities through automatic redaction of non-relevant sensitive information. During the same month, OneTrust acquired Convercent to enhance its platform through advanced ethics and compliance capabilities, and helpline and disclosure management. OneTrust acquired the security assurance and certification platform Tugboat Logic in September 2021, to automate its InfoSec assurance and certification processes. Other notable acquisitions include Privacy Core e-learning, DataGuidance, and Integris Software.In March 2023, OneTrust announced the addition of certification automation to the OneTrust GRC and Security Assurance Cloud. This solution which combines automation, pre-built policies and controls spanning 29 industry frameworks, over 100 integrations, compliance content, and expert guidance enables customers to simplify and streamline compliance tasks according to OneTrust.Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, OneTrust said it served over 14,000 active customers, including 75 of the Fortune 100. The company claims it serves notable organizations from all industries, with Adobe, Walgreens, Samsung, and Mearsk among its customer base.OneTrust entered a partnership with Dow Jones Risk and Compliance in April 2023, to incorporate risk and compliance data into its third-party due diligence solution.

OneTrust

CENTRL provides automated risk management and privacy management solutions. Through its Privacy360 platform, the company provides solutions to identify compliance gaps, automate data discovery, manage data subject rights requests, consent management (with a user-facing preference center), carry out impact assessments, third-party risk management, monitoring, and reporting.

CENTRL

HighSide provides a secure communications platform for organizations, enterprise archiving solutions, data discovery, and supervision tools in compliance with GDPR, CCPA, etc. In 2019, the company announced the acquisition of Hotshot Technologies, a secure team messaging platform.

HighSide

SecuPI provides a patented platform enabling organizations to achieve compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The platform achieves this by providing multiple features to protect data such as pseudonymization, consent controls, audit logs, streamlining breach notifications, etc. SecuPI’s platform is deployed in organizations in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, and health industries.

SecuPi

JoinPrivacy is a B2C solution that allows users to manage their personal data from the websites they use, all from one place.

JoinPrivacy

Solutions to prevent the tracking and collection of the personal data of end-users.

Encrypted communications and data exchanges for internal and external collaboration around sensitive data.

Tools to provide compliance with privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, and carry out tasks such as data discovery, data governance, consent management, Data Subject Rights (DSR) management, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) and managing incident response as mandated by these privacy regulations.

Synthetic data generation, data de-identification and anonymization, and other solutions for managing sensitive data.

Storage infrastructure for holding data in compliance with regulations such as GDPR or data residency requirements.

Central management of data access and data privacy and security policies.

Uses AI/ML to automate workflows such as data discovery and data classification

Uses generative AI to provide conversational recommendations to users to remain compliant with privacy regulations

Solutions in this industry hub are offered under a B2B SaaS model

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 SAS, the software firm, has bought the main software properties of Hazy, a company from London that leads in synthetic data technology. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
 This purchase will improve SAS' Data Maker platform, enabling users to simulate a range of possible future circumstances. The benefits include a quicker route to market for AI initiatives through the use of synthetic datasets, enhanced data privacy, and reduced costs in data collection. These improved solutions are anticipated to be ready for preview in early 2025.
 Hazy specializes in synthetic data technology which replicates the statistical trends of real data while avoiding the exposure of private, identifiable, or protected information. This aids businesses in tackling data scarcity and privacy problems, while enhancing the accuracy of models. 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 The news aligns with SAS's USD 1 billion commitment in <a href="https: 
//itbrief.co.uk/story/sas-invests-1-billion-to-propel-generative-ai-in-multiple-sectors-expands-microsoft-partnership"> September 2023 </a> to expand GenAI solutions across multiple industries, including banking, life sciences, and retail. The M&amp;A also expands on the company's existing machine learning operations, including <a href="https: 
//www.sas.com/en_hk/solutions/ai/generative-ai.html"> SAS Viya </a> , an LLM deployment solution.

Hazy (acquired by SAS)

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