Neotas, which offers due diligence and HR screening, has closed a funding round of over £1m backed by Symvan Capital, Force Over Mass and a number of private investors.
The London-based company analyses people’s ‘digital trails’ as insights into their background, behaviour and networks. The service enables investors and employers to screen key staff, safeguard their investments, mitigate against fraud and insider threats and show compliance standards.
Neotas’ digital intelligence platform, which is operated by former military and intelligence analysts, uses open source intelligence (OSINT). This includes analysis of international records, social media and the deep and dark web – information which is openly available but mostly cannot be found via search engines. The funding will allow Neotas to further develop its platform and technology, add to its analysts and step up its sales and marketing.
Ian Howard, Director at Neotas said: “We have already invested heavily in developing our technology. This funding will allow us to take it one step further, and create a next generation due diligence platform to allow organisations to mitigate risk and safeguard their investments and brands in the modern era.”
Nicholas Nicolaides, Investment Director at Symvan Capital, added: “People are the biggest risk in any organisation. Neotas allows businesses to access the wealth of information available in today’s digitally inter-connected world to safeguard their operations and investments. Driven by both changes in the regulatory environment and the exponential growth of available information, the company’s client base has been expanding steadily, and this investment will allow it to propel its growth to a new level.”
Neotas was founded in early 2017 by Vipul Mishra, pictured seated, who was head of information security at a London-based hedge fund, and Ian Howard, who has over 30 years’ experience in finance and investment. The company has built up a client base that includes private equity firms, insurance companies, investment houses and other financial institutions.
