Scottish firm SICCAR, previously Wallet Services, has received an investment of £1.3 million led by venture capital firm Par Equity.
The investment will strengthen its product development and customer teams as the company builds on its success in two industry sectors. The company will expand its executive team to include marketing expertise, customer engagement capability and product and technical resource as it refines the SICCAR platform.
SICCAR aim to empower organisations to remove friction from digital interactions with partners customers and citizens. The SICCAR platform addresses issues of data protection, consent, and accountability, using distributed ledger technology.
In high value manufacturing the SICCAR platform has enabled secure sharing of data along complex supply chains (known as industry 4.0). In the oil and gas industry, for instance, it allows manufacturing records to be generated and assured collaboratively, enabling efficient, high integrity operations and creating cost savings.
The SICCAR platform has also been tested across the Scottish public sector around student support, disability entitlement, and health and social care interaction. The technology has been used to reduce the burden of evidence for citizens in accessing public services and entitlements – by removing the need to repeatedly provide personal details to multiple government agencies. It also enables support to be targeted proactively to benefit the most disadvantaged in society.
Aidan MacMillan, investment manager at Par Equity, said: “We were attracted to SICCAR because of their unique approach, which enables the people who really understand the problem, the customers, to use distributed ledger tech as a tool to solve real pain points. The Scottish Public Sector alone has over 100 agencies that need to connect in a way that everyone can trust. Covid-19 has accelerated the move towards online eServices around the world and SICCAR has the solution they need.”
Peter Ferry, founder of SICCAR, added: “In funding the next stage of our growth we’ve found a partner with a depth of experience and connections across the industries we’re working in. We’ve access to Par Equity’s network and direct recent industry and technology knowledge. Their support will help ensure that we are able to build on our existing momentum to rapidly grow a successful business.”