From left: Eoin Keary and Rahim Jina from Edgescan, and BGF’s Maedhbh O'Driscoll. Image: Fennell Photography
With investment from BGF, Edgescan plans to accelerate its international expansion and new product development.
On Sunday (7 June), Irish cybersecurity start-up Edgescan announced that it has received a €10.5m investment from State-backed venture capital firm BGF and former senior IBM executive Bernie Waldron.
BGF is backed by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank. With this investment, BGF will acquire a minority stake in Dublin-based Edgescan.
Over the past 17 months, BGF has backed four Irish start-ups, with a combined investment of just over €30m.
Edgescan was founded by Eoin Keary and Rahim Jina in 2011. Keary is a former vice-chair of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), a project lead and author, while Jina is a cybersecurity veteran.
The infosec start-up provides continuous cybersecurity intelligence, assessment and services to leading national and international companies. Its proprietary SaaS product detects vulnerabilities across a company’s networks, web applications, APIs and cloud deployments.
The start-up’s clients work in areas such as entertainment, media, financial services, healthcare and retail. Edgescan currently employs 57 people in Dublin.
Growth opportunities
With the funding injection, the start-up plans to further its international expansion and expedite new product development to continue its growth trajectory.
Commenting on the investment, Keary said: “Having bootstrapped the company to date, we are delighted to have reached this milestone investment from BGF. We have ambitious plans to aggressively grow Edgescan with a focus on opportunities in North America, the UK and Europe.
“We look forward to working closely with Bernie and BGF to fulfil our goals for the business in the coming years.”
On the back of his investment, Waldron is set to join the Edgescan board as an independent non-executive chair. He said he has been “hugely impressed” by the differentiated position the start-up has carved in a fast-growing cybersecurity marketplace.
“Eoin and Rahim have also shown themselves to be ambitious and open-minded in their approach to continuing their growth, and I’m looking forward to working closely with them,” Waldron said.
Leo Casey, head of Republic of Ireland for BGF, is set to join the board, along with BGF’s Maedhbh O’Driscoll who is joining as a board observer.
