Growthdeck-led fundraise for digital archivers Arkivum closes at over £1.5m

• Arkivum is partnering with Google to deliver a €4.8m data archiving project  

Private equity investment firm Growthdeck – alongside existing investors, IP Group and Parkwalk – has closed a £1.575m fundraise for the secure digital archiving platform Arkivum. 

Arkivum helps businesses ensure that the data they have collected remains accessible, secure and usable for decades into the future. It works with businesses, often in highly regulated industries, to deal with the data archiving problems that tech consultancy Forrester has described as a ‘ticking time-bomb’.

Many of the organisations Arkivum works with, such as pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs, are required by regulators to retain clinical trial data for 25 years. Failure to provide the right data when requested can lead to fines and trials coming to a halt. 

Some of the key reasons these records can be hard to maintain include:

• Data can only be read by applications that no longer run on modern computers
• Data is stored on degrading physical media (e.g. hard drives) which can suffer catastrophic failure
• Using cloud storage providers that may discontinue their services or change them significantly
• Archived data being lost permanently in malware incidents due to lack of backups

Arkivum is currently partnering with Google to deliver the €4.8m ARCHIVER data archiving project for a multinational group of scientific research institutions, led by CERN, which operates the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The project will store and protect extremely large-scale research data, measured in petabytes (units of one million gigabytes).

Arkivum’s platform can be integrated with cloud-based platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The platform allows businesses to preserve these valuable digital assets into the future, protecting them from loss, corruption and hardware failure. Arkivum also guarantees that the data will be readable and usable in the future.

Allyson Clarke, Relationship Director at Growthdeck, comments:

“We’re excited to be backing a business that solves such a vitally important and growing issue – the preservation of data, now and in the future.”

“Many of our life-saving industries, such as pharmaceuticals and scientific exploration, rely heavily on keeping extremely valuable data records safe to allow them to complete their investigations. As a key provider to these vital services, Arkivum’s solutions outperform anything else currently on the market.”

Growthdeck’s equity investment in Arkivum qualifies for tax reliefs under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). EIS is an investment scheme which allows private investors to make tax savings by investing in growth businesses. The EIS allows investors to:

• Invest up to £1million per annum
• Reclaim 30% of the cost of investment against their income tax bill 
• To not pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on any gains realised after three years
• Claim further income tax relief should an investment result in any form of loss
• Defer capital gains tax due on the sale of another asset by re-investing the gain in an EIS-qualifying company
• Save inheritance tax on any EIS-qualifying shares held for over two years

ENDS

About Growthdeck

Growthdeck offers tax-efficient investment opportunities in UK growth businesses to Sophisticated and High Net Worth Investors, with a minimum investment of £5,000. 

The company offers a comprehensive service to investors, including detailed upfront due diligence on all investee businesses, post-investment monitoring and reporting and a strong focus on achieving an exit for investors. Its focus is on long-term business viability: companies must have strong management, realistic business plans and operate in growth sectors. The majority of its investment opportunities will be eligible for tax breaks under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) or Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). 

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. Your capital is at risk. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.