Siren raises $10m to help company develop and expand

Irish data company Siren has raised $10 million in Series A funding round that will help the company further develop its products and expand into new markets.

Developed as a spinout from Data Intensive Infrastructure, the big data and knowledge representation research group at NUI Galway, Siren offers an investigative intelligence platform that makes it easier to use the data you collect to answer questions and make links, find patterns and relationships. It makes data accessible through real-time search, dashboard analytics, knowledge graphs and real-time alerts.

The latest funding round was led by Atlantic Bridge, with participation from DVI Equity Partners, Frontline Ventures and Enterprise Ireland, and follows a $4 million funding round in 2018.

"The demand for investigative intelligence and large-scale interconnected data analysis is constantly accelerating. Our platform uniquely enables this in real-time at a scale that companies and government organisations require," said John Randles, Siren chief executive. "In this sector, it is critical to not only raise funds, but also to have the right wealth of experience."

Bono-backed truck-tracking company raises $400 million

---

Leading US tech entrepreneur invests €500,000 in Cork start-up

---

Eir Retail presence at watchdog meeting raises eyebrows

---

Ebury plans to double staff numbers at its Dublin office

---

As part of the DVI participation, former i2 chief executive Bob Griffin will join Siren's board. A member of the board of advisers for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a director of the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, and a member of the cyberadvisory board for the Daily Cypher Brief, Mr Griffin led intelligence firm i2, which was bought by IBM.

Pioneer

“We believe Siren is a pioneer in a market that is about to explode,” Mr Griffin said. “We are pleased to support their ongoing success and become part of a journey that will see investigative intelligence technologies shape the future direction of law enforcement, cyber security and financial fraud.

Co-founder and chief product officer of Siren Dr Giovanni Tummarello said the company was at the forefront of augmented analytics, which uses machine learning automation and artificial intelligence techniques to augment human intelligence and contextual awareness. Globally, the market is expected to grow to $18.4 billion by 2023, up from the current $4.8 billion.

The company has offices in Galway, Dublin, Bordeaux, Cambridge, Trento in Italy and Philadelphia.

Frontline Ventures has also participated in a £2.1 million (€2.45 million) seed funding round for Belfast-headquartered software company Cloudsmith.

Other participants in the round include London’s MMC Ventures and Techstart Ventures.

Artefact repository

Cloudsmith, which was founded in 2013, has developed an artefact repository and caching platform that providing secure digital storage for software assets under development. The solution helps simplify, secure and accelerate software development and delivery pipelines.

Meanwhile, the founder of Zoom, a popular videoconferencing platform that recently went public, has emerged as a backer of Cork-based internal communications software company Workvivo.

No financial details of Eric Yuan’s investment have been disclosed but industry sources said it is believed to be close to €500,000.

Founded two years ago, Workvivo’s solution is used by companies in more than 40 countries with clients including Morgan McKinley, Cubic Telecom, Voxpro, VMWare and Laya Healthcare.