The presentation of a Queen’s Award for Innovation has highlighted a Gloucestershire business which started three years ago after a series of discreet meetings in pubs and car parks, and whose customers today include the government and big business.
Synalogik was presented with its award by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, at the county's unofficial cyber headquarters, Hub 8, and as one investor in the firm told SoGlos, he now knows what it is like to ‘back a winner at Cheltenham’.
For the founders – a dream team of a barrister with expertise in prosecuting complex fraud and grave criminal cases, the former head of intelligence for a major security firm, an outstanding software engineer and a former advisor to the military on IT – winning the award is a proud moment.
It also helps highlight the incredible talent being drawn to Gloucestershire and its cyber sector.
Daniel White, a founders and chief commercial officer for Synalogik, who was at the Hub8 event with staff to witness the award presentation, said: ‘There is incredible talent in this room. They are the very best of the best.
'We are part of a hub of cyber businesses now around Cheltenham which are, outside of London, exceptional.'
Gareth Mussell, chief executive of Synalogik and another of the founders of the Tewkesbury-headquartered firm, said: 'For us, to win the Queen's Award, is down to the hard work and determination of our staff. I have the honour of receiving it on behalf of the business, but it is all of the team that won it.
'Gloucestershire clearly has some outstanding talent in this sector and with everything that is going on here - and everything connected to the Golden Valley Development - it will only get stronger.'
Synalogik’s powerful anti-fraud software tool, Scout, is now a world-leading data aggregation platform for fighting financial crime across both the public and private sectors.
The firm already has clients from the gambling, banking, insurance, legal and public sector, large multi nationals, names including NatWest Group and Betway and government agencies.
Initial funding came from directors remortgaging their homes, but turnover has doubled year-on-year and in January it raised £3 million of Series A funding. Investors include the likes of William Currie Group and Sir Terry Leahy, former chief executive officer of Tesco.
Now the firm is gearing up for a second round of funding to further scale-up operations and it expects to continue to grow its team of 60.
Mark Blandford, a partner at Burlywood Capital and one of the key investors already on board, said: ‘It used to be you went to London to find cyber firms to invest in, but the pandemic changed that. For those prepared to look more closely at the shires there is real opportunity.’
