Of all the firms in Cheltenham’s cyber cluster beginning to make a name for themselves, Ripjar has come out of the blocks fastest in the race for investment, and the firm has just revealed yet another increase in turnover too.
The Eagle Tower-headquartered business founded by former GCHQ staff, won £28 million of Series B funding led by specialist fintech investor Long Ridge Equity Partners in September 2021.
Ripjar laid out the detail in its just-published annual results for the year to 31 December 2021, which showed turnover increased 12 per cent from £7.9 million in 2020 to £8,86 million in 2021 and staff numbers grew from 69 to 95 – before it had begun investing any of the series B funding.
Jeremy Annis, director and one of the founders of the Cheltenham firm, said: 'Having reached a monthly operating profit towards the end of 2020, the group is now implementing its next phase of growth from solid foundations and further fuelled by the series B funding round completed in 2020 which resulted in £18 million direct cash funding.'
Annis, who was referring to the 'first tranche' of the £28 million, said the investment was 'required for the group to execute its growth ambitions, most notably staff and the resource required to scale the organisation and its operations in a sustainable manner'.
That spending is expected to take place 'over the next financial year and beyond', meaning throughout 2022.
'The group plans to appoint certain executives over the next 12 months alongside continued expansion into Australian and US markets,’ he added
The majority of Ripjar’s business is currently done in Europe, which saw sales grow from £3.6 million to £4.9 million, with turnover for the rest of the world down from £3.4 million to £2.8 million and standing at just under £1 million in the UK.
After taxation Ripjar made a loss of £4.9 million, but has £16.3 million of cash holdings.
Ripjars technologies are used by clients, from financial services firms to government clients for counter terrorism work and reportedly by firms including BAE Sysyems, Dow Jones and PWC.
