Galway-based investigative intelligence firm Siren raises $10m

14 Nov 2019

Dunguaire Castle in Galway. Image: © Jenifoto/Stock.adobe.com

Siren has received backing from Enterprise Ireland, Atlantic Bridge and DVI Equity Partners.

Today (14 November), investigative intelligence start-up Siren announced the closure of a $10m Series A funding round.

It includes investment from DVI Equity Partners, a venture capital firm that specialises in areas such as national security, enterprise software, artificial intelligence, data storage and analysis, as well as Frontline Ventures, Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland.

In 2018, Siren raised around $4m in seed funding, which has enabled it to expand its offering and target new markets.

Gerry Maguire, general partner of Atlantic Bridge, said: “The latest round of funding will enable Siren to further develop its proposition and expand into new markets, consolidating its position as an industry leader. Siren is revolutionising the augmented analytics field, creating unprecedented value especially for organisations with large real-time data.”

Dr Giovanni Tummarello, chief product officer and co-founder of Siren, said: “Siren stands at the forefront of augmented analytics, the new wave of analytics in which AI techniques give analysts unprecedented powers of investigation.

“In Siren, techniques like knowledge graph and link analysis, entity resolution, search, natural language processing and predictive analytics seamlessly come together in a single UI.”

John Randles, CEO of Siren, added: “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. In this sector, it is critical to not only raise funds, but also to have the right wealth of experience.”

‘A market that is about to explode’

As part of DVI Equity Partners’ stake in the funding round, one of its managing partners, Bob Griffin, will join the Siren board of directors. Griffin is the former CEO of i2, which was acquired by IBM, and has extensive experience in intelligence and law enforcement software.

He is also a member of the board of advisers for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), a member of the board of directors for the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) and a member of the cyber advisory board for the Daily Cipher Brief.

Griffin said: “We believe Siren is a pioneer in a market that is about to explode. 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, cybersecurity and financial fraud.”

Carol Gibbons of Enterprise Ireland added: “Our recently published report which examined the emerging trends within the European cybersecurity market highlighted the degree of opportunity at present for Irish cyber companies to grow their businesses overseas.

“Enterprise Ireland is pleased to be a part of today’s announcement and to support ambitious, regionally based companies like Siren by meaningfully investing in their growth.”

Kelly Earley was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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