Foresight Group, the leading listed infrastructure and regional private equity investment manager, has led a £2.2 million growth capital investment into Cavero Quantum alongside co-investor, Northern Gritstone.
Cavero Quantum, a University of Leeds spinout, has developed a new passwordless encryption technology for secure key generation and authentication. It is compatible with legacy hardware, requires little bandwidth and has the potential to be potentially 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. Varcoe will support Cavero Quantum alongside his existing role as professor of quantum information science at the University of Leeds, while Wilson 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. Trenholme is an experienced software entrepreneur who has previously founded and exited an identity services start-up, while Wallace has significant deep-tech experience in quantum computing.
Foresight has invested alongside Northern Gritstone, an investment company dedicated to supporting ambitious science and technology-enabled businesses in the North of England, including through its venture-building program NG Studios powered by Deeptech Labs, in which Cavero Quantum participated earlier this year.
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.
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.”
New Cavero CEO Trenholme added: “The technology that Ben, Frey and the experimental quantum science team at the University of Leeds have built really is ground-breaking technology. It’s 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.”
