Manchester-based cybersecurity company Cytix has raised £5m in a Series A investment round.
Northern Gritstone led the round with £3m, alongside Auriga Cyber Ventures and PXN’s managed NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance.
Founded in 2022 by Ben Armstrong, Thomas Ballin and Matt Milan, Cytix will use the funding to accelerate the rollout of the company’s newly launched change risk platform and grow the size of its team.
The platform continuously monitors every software change or update that a business makes, analyses and validates the risk of that change, and provides an explanation of how that risk was handled.
Ben Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Cytix, said: “We chose Northern Gritstone for their conviction in investing in deeptech companies in the North of England with global ambition.
“AI-assisted development means change now happens at machine speed. Meanwhile, very few security leaders have control over, or an understanding of those changes from a risk perspective.
“Right now, existing tools can tell you what vulnerabilities you have, but they can’t tell you about the risk. We launched our change risk management platform to help get control of that risk.”
The Series A round will help Cytix reach customers across enterprise and regulated sectors, where change governance is a regulatory obligation.
Customers can access the platform either directly through Cytix or through its managed service partnerships with NCC Group and KPMG.
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, said: “The explosion of AI-assisted software development has led to a race to ensure software implementation remains secure.
“Cytix’s platform aims to help enterprises take a realistic approach, recognising where change carries the most risk whilst allowing businesses to innovate. Northern Gritstone is proud to support another ambitious Manchester-based business in an exciting phase of its growth.”
The investment marks Northern Gritstone’s 55th investment since it began investing more than four years ago.
Sarah Isal, principal investor at Auriga Cyber Ventures, said: “We invested in Cytix because the team identified early that software change would become a critical cybersecurity challenge.
“Since then, they’ve shown the resilience and discipline to execute on that vision, building a product that’s earning the trust of enterprise customers and strategic partners alike. We’re proud to continue supporting Ben, Thomas and the team in this next phase of growth.”