The CEO of a Berlin-based secure messaging and collaboration platform says Brexit could pose a cybersecurity challenge for the UK.
Morten Brøgger’s Wire platform works with five of the G7 governments as well as the UK public sector. It is targeting the UK government as a potential customer.
In announcing that the firm has raised a $21 million Series B funding round, led by VC firm UVC Partners, he suggests that the UK’s exit from the EU may have left a security hole.
“Geopolitically, the fact that the UK has left the EU means that lots of cybersecurity work that was previously done at a European-wide level amongst EU member states will need to be addressed by the UK directly,” says Brøgger.
“As a result, we believe that Brexit means there will be a greater demand in the UK for solutions like ours and we are working to build up strong internal knowledge to support this.
“Other nations are already protecting the national interest when it comes to data sovereignty, rising international espionage and the evolving threat of cybercrime collectively equates to a growing need for secure communication. We clearly see and expect the UK to follow that same path.
“Wire’s solution solves the generic problem of making collaboration secure and intuitive and the UK public sector, critical infrastructure and other highly regulated industries are primed for our offering.”
Developed with security at the forefront, Wire’s platform offers messenger, voice, video, conference calls, file-sharing and external collaboration. Its annual revenue grew three times in 2020.
The funding will be used to support Wire’s international growth and enable the company to more aggressively take on the likes of Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams in the collaboration space.
Also serving customers in the energy and financial services sectors, in the UK the firm is focusing on growth in the public sector.
“We currently have UK customers across multiple industries, spanning the public sector, insurance, telecommunications and defence,” continues Brøgger.
“We’ve had some of these customers for multiple years, several have introduced new use cases in the last 12 months and we’ve also gained traction in multiple new areas.
“Without disclosing specific targets, we see high-growth potential in the UK public sector specifically, which is where we will be focusing our UK sales efforts for the foreseeable future.”
Wire will grow its 90+ team, based across its German HQ and offices in Switzerland and San Francisco, with the funding.