Security systems specialist CWSI completes €2.3m funding round

Dublin-based enterprise mobility specialist CWSI has secured more than €2.3 million in investment in a move that values the business at over €15 million.

The company confirmed an investment of €1.5 million in recent weeks from the 2018 Davy EIIS Fund, which is a joint venture between BDO and J&E Davy. This followed an investment some months earlier of approximately €850,000 from a number of private investors.

CWSI was set up in 2011 by Ronan Murphy who has a strong track record in the mobile sector, having previously co-founded Cellular World in the 1990s. That company grew to become one of the country's leading mobile phone retailers before being sold to what was then Digifone in 1998 for an estimated €10 million.

CWSI, which employs 32 people, manages security and other services for mobile devices used by companies in the Republic and the United Kingdom. Ryanair, CityJet, Paddy Power Betfair and the British Asset Resolution agency are among its clients.

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Opportunity

The company was advised on both investments by Focus Capital Partners. An earlier funding round completed in 2015 valued the business at circa €4.5 million.

“Mobility is now at the heart of every business and our role is to help companies manage both the opportunity and the risk that comes with that. The global mobile platform security market will be worth an estimated $1 billion by next year – up from just $200 million in 2017,” said Mr Murphy.

“Mobile phone operators are keen to work with third-party companies like ourselves as we can help them provide and manage key security tools to protect their business customers,” he added.

Sinead Heaney, partner, corporate investment at BDO, who led the investment on behalf of the BDO/Davy EIIS Fund, said that the investment reflected confidence in the CWSI model and the scale of the market opportunity.

“CWSI has established a leadership position in the Irish and UK markets and we believe that this sets it up strongly for future growth and expansion,” she said.