EIE is an Investor Readiness Programme that offers the most advanced start-ups and scale-ups the opportunity to undergo an intensive programme to make them investor ready. This programme culminates at our technology investor showcase, where we bring together our cohort of incredible companies with international investors. Please purchase your tickets here for this year’s showcase taking place virtually on 6th October 2022.
As we lead up to the showcase, we are pleased to offer you an in-depth look at the companies in our current cohort.
The cohort for EIE22 comprises of the most innovative companies spanning multiple sectors of interest, and in this new series of stories, we will feature companies that will be pitching for investment at the investor showcase in early October.
Our next feature is on Securium, a multi-award-winning cyber-Intelligence company developing software and services to protect businesses and individuals online through their innovative AI software.
Tech for Good
Grounded in psychological theories and other scientific literature, Securium provides fast, automatic, and cost-effective software tools for conversation and content analysis.
Dr Anna Vartapetiance, CEO and Co-Founder of Securium, was a student at the University of Surrey—first, in 2007 for her master’s degree, and then, again in 2010 as a PhD student—when she met Lee Gillam, a lecturer for her MSc in Computer Science. After almost a decade of collaboration in academia, Dr. Vartapetiance and Gillam joined forces to use their joint passion, knowledge, and expertise to create Securium.
“In modern society, the internet is a crucial technology – it has revolutionised the way we connect, communicate, learn and do business. While the benefits are infinite, there are also various implicated risks and threats,” says Dr. Vartapetiance. “Businesses and vulnerable individuals need protection, and Securium, is leading the way in this field. The firm provides online safety technologies to keep those at risk especially children, from harm such as grooming, exploitation, disinformation and hate speech.”
How to Help Keep the Internet Safe
Securium’s mission is to create safer and stronger communities by safeguarding businesses and individuals, especially children, online. One of the two products available, called Securium-Safeguard combined psychology and AI to identify activities that can lead to online grooming and exploitation.
It looks at the presence of behaviours such as daring, and patterns of request or reward or repeat. The tools highlight dangerous and illegal communications, from chat rooms to gaming platforms.
Their second product is Securium-Discover, which helps organisations track the dissemination of harmful online content. This helps to identify mis/disinformation, brand, reputation and revenue protection, effectively and easily.
One of their biggest hurdles has been helping establish ‘’online safety tech” as a sector and show the need for a solution in this area.
EIE is Helping Securium Create Social Impact
Dr. Vartapetiance who is also director of OSTIA (Online Safety Tech Industry Association) and winner of InnovateUK’s prestigious Women In Innovation award 2022, is excited to have Securium join EIE.
“EIE22 provides Securium with an exciting opportunity to join a cohort of companies from diverse backgrounds who are all striving to grow their businesses and, for some such as Securium, to have a positive impact on society through their mission of protecting the most vulnerable in society from online harms,” she says. “The programme provides practical support to help companies like Securium be better informed about investment considerations and options to help them make the right investment choices for where their company is on their journey at that time.”
Dr. Vartapetiance says the ideal investors for Securium are those who have the experience and the passion to challenge the worth through their investment in tech-for-good and social impact companies.
“We are actively seeking help to accelerate our mission of creating a safer internet and protecting the vulnerable from harm. We believe that our participation in EIE22 will introduce us to people and organisations with the right skills and resources to help Securium achieve its potential and make the societal impact we know it is capable of.”
You can purchase tickets now to watch Securium and the other companies in the EIE22 cohort presenting to investors and pitching for investment at the premier showcase taking place this year on 6th October.
EIE is delivered by The Bayes Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub for data science and artificial intelligence.