SCI Semiconductor, a memory-safe computer chip startup, has raised £5m in funding led by PXN Ventures and Mercia Ventures, with participation from Osney Capital, Black Opal Ventures and private investors. The heavily oversubscribed round follows a £2.5m investment led by NPIF II and Mercia Ventures a year ago.
Memory safety is the key factor in around 70% of cyber attacks. Traditional software allows memory to be freely accessed, giving developers flexibility but creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, and meaning coding flaws can bring down an entire system, as in the 2024 CrowdStrike outages. SCI embeds security in the computer architecture instead, dividing memory into trusted compartments and tightly controlling how it is accessed. Its ICENI range are the first chips to be based on CHERI technology, a government-backed framework for memory-safe technology, and SCI has been appointed a core supplier in the UK government's Accelerated CHERI Adoption Programme.
The launch comes amid fears that AI tools such as Mythos, which can reveal deep flaws in computer systems, could pave the way for a new wave of cyber attacks, with critical infrastructure, defence and medical sectors particularly at risk. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre has warned that software patching alone might not provide enough protection and is urging companies to adopt memory-safe technology. SCI's chip will also enable users to meet many of the reporting requirements for the European Cyber Resilience Act, which comes into force in September.
Founded in 2022 by industry veteran Haydn Povey, Silicon Valley executive Krishna Anne and leading Microsoft Research specialist Dr David Chisnall, who were joined by academics from the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester, SCI employs 35 staff at its Sheffield headquarters and its Cambridge office and plans to create another 15 jobs in the next year. First devices have already been fabricated, with orders worth over £2m secured alongside government contracts totalling £7.7m and partnerships with Google Research and Microsoft. Semiconductors are designed and packaged in the United Kingdom, with the fabrication process carried out in Germany.
The funding will accelerate production in response to demand and support the development of a new generation of chips in the United Kingdom.
The problem of memory safety is finally being taken seriously. As AI is identifying hundreds of critical vulnerabilities, it is clear that huge swathes of technology are open to attack. Additionally with so much code generated by AI, the question is how much of it is fit for purpose and what risk that could pose to systems. Memory safe technology helps overcome these challenges. Since unveiling our ICENI chip earlier this year, demand has been overwhelming. The funding will enable us to step up production and develop a new generation of chips here in the UK.
SCI Semiconductor brings together some of the leading minds in the industry. They have developed an elegant solution to a trillion-dollar problem, one that has so far eluded other players, and the business has quickly gained traction. We are pleased to continue supporting them and look forward to seeing them go from strength to strength.
We're proud to be backing the SCI Semiconductor team, who are doing incredibly important work addressing rising threats to critical infrastructure and other key sectors with hardware-level cybersecurity, particularly as these threats become more sophisticated.
SCI Semiconductor is the exactly the type of UK company Osney Capital seeks to support: world-leading technologists tackling global cyber security problems with commercial energy, focussed on execution. Memory safety is a genuinely massive opportunity and we are delighted to be working with Haydn and the broader team.
