Quester

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Venture Capital & Private Equity

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Quester, one of the UK's leading independent venture capital companies, has made a seed investment in Argelcom, a spin out company from Bristol University that specialises in data encryption. The funding will enable the company to continue its software development and capitalise on the early customer interest it has received. Argelcom was formed in 2003 from the University's cryptographic department - one of the world leading centers for cryptography working with companies such as GCGQ, Infineon, HP and ST Microelectronics. The company has developed an email encryption product which is quick and easy to install and is able to operate at low processing speeds, meaning it can run on a mobile device. The product offers a solution to many of the problems that have hindered the growth of PKI, such as high set-up costs, whist retaining the same level of security. IBE is making significant headway in becoming a potential replacement technology for PKI. Argelcom is based on a concept known as Identity Based Encryption [‘IBE'] which uses a string of characters, in this case an email address, to generate the PKI equivalent of the public key. Argelcom's IBE solution is based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), an esoteric branch of mathematics. The company has made good early commercial progress with an initial trial underway at a major UK bank. Discussions with a number of other parties are underway and expectations are that Argelcom will be rolling out a solution to a major webmail provider in the next few months. Andy Dancer, CEO, said today: "We are very pleased to have attracted investment from Quester because they have a long track record of helping to build successful technology businesses. Our success in raising equity funding in what remains a difficult climate for technology investment is a testimony to the qualities of the Argelcom business and team." Jamie Brooke, Investment Director at Quester added: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to support this high quality spin out from Bristol University, another example of potential investment opportunities coming from the UK university sector. In a short space of time, Argelcom has made significant progress in developing its technology and above all, finding simple new ways of keeping emails private."

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