Next week at Engage, Invest, Exploit (EIE) in Edinburgh 60 Scottish technology companies with high growth potential will pitch to investors for seed to Series A funding.
Established by Informatics Ventures in 2008 and now the largest event of its kind in the UK outside London, EIE is Scotland’s premier technology investor showcase connecting technology companies with potential investors, partners and customers.
Diddo
One of this year’s impressive cohort of tech companies seeking to attract investment is the cyber security software business Diddo, which will be pitching for £1 million. Founded by three directors (Nick Cooper, Douglas Trainer and Tom Chapman) with a wealth of experience in military intelligence, cyber security and software engineering, Diddo is definitely one to look out for.
Setting out with a mission to “protect good people”, Diddo’s first product is an innovative cyber security software solution that enables you to protect yourself online with minimal effort (or knowledge). It’s unique in combining several essential cyber security tools into one simplified package.
Both a desktop and mobile app, it brings together password, browser and social media security as well as tools to help you understand what’s being said about you online. For me, the best thing about it is that it’s so easy to use. You can control your security settings across multiple platforms at the same time, to levels which suit you. Its many great features include alerts if you have been involved in a data breach (e.g. if your email address has been compromised), so that you can take immediate action to protect yourself.
Cyber security threats
With organisations facing an ever-growing threat from cybercrime (Cybersecurity Ventures forecasts that the global cost of cybercrime will hit $6 trillion by 2021), protecting your business online is – or should be – a board level priority. And there’s usually more at stake than just money; your organisation could also suffer reputational damage and face legal consequences if your approach to cyber protection is ineffective. There can’t be any weak links, so everyone within, or connected online with, your organisation needs to be properly protected. Not just your employees, but also your customers and suppliers.
Diddo’s journey
The journey so far for Diddo has been fast-paced. Having won grant funding and a place on the Scottish Government’s CivTech challenge in late 2016, the company embarked on an accelerator programme which took the product through to Minimum Viable Product in early 2017.
Since then the focus had been on further product development, with the beta product deployed in March 2018 and now ready to go to market. At the same time the business put in place organisational infrastructure and onboarded management support. This has included some assistance from Wallace Marketing in developing the marketing strategy, which is focused on specific high value business-to-business target markets.
The global cyber security market has been growing exponentially for several years now and is forecast to increase by almost 70% from $120 billion in 2017 to $202 billion by 2021 (according to Cybersecurity Ventures). So there couldn’t be a better time for Diddo to be launching its cutting-edge new product.
Best of luck to the team next Thursday!