The investment into Leeds-based Cavero Quantum was led by private equity manager Foresight Group and Northern Gristone, an independent investment company founded by the Unviversities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.
Cavero Quantum has developed passwordless encryption technology for secure key generation and authentication. It is compatible with legacy hardware, requires little bandwidth and has the potential to secure against cyber attacks by quantum computers.
The technology is attractive to a wide range of sectors and has immediate market application through replacing multi-factor authentication and one-time passwords with a high security, frictionless, passwordless form of authentication.
Founded by Professor Ben Varcoe and Dr Frey Wilson, Cavero Quantum will use the funding to begin commercialising its technology and launch its first product. Ben will support Cavero Quantum alongside his existing role as Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Leeds, while Frey will become Chief Technology Officer.
As part of the investment, the founders will be supported by the appointment of James Trenholme, as CEO, and Andrew Wallace as Chair. James is an experienced software entrepreneur who has previously founded and exited an identity services start-up, whilst Andrew Wallace has significant deep-tech experience in quantum computing.
Cyber attacks are estimated to cost the global economy $7 trillion per year and are driving investment across the cyber security market, including in passwordless authentication which is projected to be worth £17 billion per year by 2027. Demand for Cavero’s solution is expected to further increase as existing cryptographic methods become more vulnerable to quantum computers.
Zickie Lim, head of venture capital investment at Mills & Reeve, said: “Ben and his colleagues in the university’s quantum science team have developed this world leading technology that will have a major impact on cybersecurity. It’s been a priviledge to help the team secure the capital investment to commercialse its passwordless cryptography that will become a leading player in a burgeoining sector dedicated to fighting against cyber attacks across the globe.”
Richard Ralph, Investment Manager at Foresight, said: "Whilst Cavero Quantum’s technology is potentially revolutionary to quantum cryptography, it offers the potential for immediate improvements on existing cryptographic approaches due to its dual authentication and passwordless nature, thereby providing improved security against existing cyber attacks. The technology has been independently validated and we look forward to working with Ben, Frey, James, Andrew and Northern Gritstone to commercialise this innovative technology.”
James Trenholme, CEO at Cavero Quantum, commented: “The technology is the first solution in the world that can replace security standards like ECDH without compromising on architecture and customer experience, keeping data safe for the future as Quantum computing becomes the norm. It’s an honour to lead Cavero Quantum. This is a great team, and I’m looking forward to building a great business together.”
