Circadian, cyber security software, and Sanctum Technologies, noise cancellation for airplane cabins, are The Oxford Seed Fund’s newest investments. Added to a growing portfolio of high growth ventures including Onfido and Go1, the fund is in its fifth year of providing seed funding to ambitious Oxford-founded start-ups.
“The Oxford Seed Fund couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to invest in Circadian and Sanctum,” says Avery Bang, Managing Director of the Oxford Seed Fund. “This year’s applicant pool was the most competitive in our Fund’s history, with over 120 Oxford-led start-ups applying for investment.”
Circadian started working on its standalone product, Quill, in 2016. Quill offers online fraud protection utilising machine learning to assess over 200 data points of passive biometric data, such as keystroke analysis and geo-positional data, to help companies better protect customer accounts and personal data. With EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation due to start in early 2018, Circadian’s approach to cybersecurity will become increasingly important.
The team is currently led by Oxford graduate Donal Carville (M.Eng, Oxon in Engineering, Economics & Management) who noted “I am delighted to be the recipient of investment by the Oxford Seed Fund. This funding has provided a perfectly timed boost to help propel our startup towards success by enabling the build-out of our technical team.”
David Crowley of the Oxford Seed Fund team notes – “We are delighted to invest £25,000 in Circadian’s innovative approach to minimising the increasing problem of credential breach. We were impressed both by the quality of the solution and also Donal’s ability to turn an idea into a promising product in such a short period of time. We look forward to following his success.”
