Lancaster University

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Lancaster University spin-out company Isis Forensics wins significant investment

12/13/2012 00:00:00
​Isis Forensics has secured significant investment from The North West Fund for Venture Capital and Lancashire County Council’s Rosebud Fund. The deal is the first joint investment by The North West Fund for Venture Capital and Rosebud, both of which are managed by Enterprise Ventures.

Isis Forensics was founded by CEO Dr James Walkerdine in 2007 and is based in co-location facilities at InfoLab21. The company is an international digital forensics company which specialises in developing solutions to protect individuals and assist law enforcement with digital investigations.

Their links with the university, assistance from InfoLab21 and focus on R&D has allowed them to develop cutting edge technologies in the areas of online child protection, language analysis and online conversation modelling.

Solutions include a mobile phone child protection app ChildDefence, which made international headlines when it was released. Isis Forensics has also worked closely with law enforcement to develop a language analysis toolkit which has recently attracted significant investment, highlighting the potential of the technologies.

CEO Dr James Walkerdine explains “Language analysis software can play an important role in protecting children online. The technology we have developed has the potential for use by website operators, internet service providers, law enforcement agencies and children themselves.

"We began looking at funding opportunities in the summer of 2011, spent 10 months working with Enterprise Ventures to further develop our business plan and to put together a strong management team to drive the company forward. We finally secured the investment in July this year. This investment will allow us to further develop products and also enable access to the technology for other markets. We are seeking new partnership and welcome inquiries.”

Douglas Stellman, investment director at Enterprise Ventures, said: " It shows how regional funds can work together to support emerging businesses with the potential to address global export markets.”