The Bank of Ireland Kernal Capital Funds Invests €1.7m in Dublin’s Sytorus

The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Early & Growth Stage Funds have invested €1.7M in Sytorus Ltd, this is in addition to simultaneous investment from Enterprise Ireland and private investors.  Established by Dr. John Ghent (CEO), Mike Morrissey (COO) and Hugh Jones (CPO) in 2013, Sytorus’s flagship software ‘PrivacyEngine’ is a dynamic GDPR and Data Protection SAAS product. It provides end-to-end data protection solutions to corporate clients.  The Company, with over 50 staff, is scaling rapidly and today has over 300 hundred fee paying corporate clients worldwide. Sytorus has opened offices in Stockholm and London, and this latest investment will facilitate a new office to open in Frankfurt.

“GDPR represents the biggest overhaul of the world’s privacy rules since the birth of the internet. Kernel Capital are delighted to announce details of this significant investment which will drive the business to new frontiers and accelerate their growth into several new markets.” Orla Rimmington, Partner, Kernel Capital.

“At Sytorus we believe that data protection practitioners deserve the best tools to do their job. This investment from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds, Enterprise Ireland and our private investors will help us to deliver these tools to data protection leaders across the EU.” Dr. John Ghent, CEO, Sytorus.

“On behalf of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds, we are pleased to have supported Sytorus with their exciting and ambitious growth plans at a time when Data Protection Practitioners are looking for expert support and solutions.” Donal Duffy, Senior Director, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking.

“A key focus for Enterprise Ireland is helping companies like Sytorus to start-up, innovate and scale internationally. Sytorus is a really great example of a highly innovative Irish company with global ambition operating in a high growth sector.” Peter Lennox, Development Advisor, Enterprise Ireland.

Data protection is a global $Bn market driven by legislation such as GDPR, which applies monetary sanctions of up to 4% of global turnover for breaches of the regulation. According to the Identity Theft Resource Centre, the number of US data breaches reported in 2017 hit a record high of 1,579 breaches, a 44.7% increase on the previous year.[1] Similarly in Ireland, the number of complaints made to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) rose by 79% in 2017.[2]

[1] https://www.idtheftcenter.org/2017-data-breaches

[2] https://www.rte.ie/news/technology/2018/0226/943809-complaints-data-commissioner/