A HOMEGROWN cyber security company is doubling its Belfast workforce as part of a £500,000 investment to drive future growth.
Belfast-based, Uleska, which employs six people at Lombard House, is currently recruiting developers to help build on its initial success.
The latest investment, raised through a combination of institutional and private funding, as well as sales, will allow the firm to grow into new markets and further develop its innovative products.
It is also expected there will be further recruitment growth later next year.
Uleska was founded in February 2016 to address a gap in the automation of software security for internet and cloud systems. Traditionally, companies building or running software struggle to perform adequate security testing, leaving holes in their systems that hackers can break into.
Uleska’s products address this by automating the running of these security checks, matching them against the systems being tested and immediately converting technical security issues into the monetary value that a breach would cost a company.
Gary Robinson, founder and CEO of Uleska believes the latest investment will help the company to further tap in to the lucrative application security market, which is expected to grow to $9billion by 2022.
"The financial support will help us to increase market penetration, continue development of the core products and recruit some talented people to join us on this exciting journey," Mr Robinson said.
Uleska has secured £325,000 of funding through a combination of institutional and private investors, including Techstart NI, Clarendon Fund Managers and Dennis Murphy, co-founder of software business Anaeko.
In addition, sales of £175,000 have been won across the UK and Ireland , as well as through the company's partnership with industry giant PwC.
Mr Murphy, who has now joined the board of Uleska, added:
"There continues to be a plethora of breaches and hacks at top organisations and companies such as Uleska are developing the technology to address this issue. Uleska solves this big problem in a very proactive and innovative way. It is great to see them receive funding and accelerate their time to market in order to commercially exploit this great opportunity.”
