News of the investment was made by mayor of London Boris Johnson this week, in a speech at the Grand Central Tech event space in New York. Digital Shadows is currently working with the Bank of England on its CBEST programme to deliver intelligence-led security tests to help keep the UK banking sector safe from attack.
The investment is being led by Storm Ventures, a West Coast US firm that specialises in scaling enterprise software as a service (SaaS) businesses. It has previously invested in Marketo and MobileIron amongst others. Passion Capital, which invested in Digital Shadows at its seed stage, is also participating in this round.
The VC line up is completed by TenEleven Ventures, a cyber-security specialist fund recently set up by Alex Doll (founder of encryption pioneer PGP) and Mark Hatfield, a prominent investor in Cylance, CounterTack and Foundstone). In addition, notable industry figures in cyber security are participating as angel investors in this round, including Tim Belcher, former CTO at Netwitness and RSA.
Digital Shadows says it will use the investment to extend its operations in the US with its first overseas offices. This will see the establishment of Digital Shadows Inc with premises opened in San Francisco and New York City. The development, said the firm, will enable it to provide its multinational clients with a local presence in the US, and grow its sales and marketing operations both in the US and UK.
Ryan Floyd of Storm Ventures said: "We are investing in Digital Shadows because we see huge potential and believe it brings something new to the market. Storm believes we can accelerate the company's growth and we look forward to using our reach in the US to help the company in its next phase of development."
Boris Johnson said: "Digital Shadows is another fantastic example of why US investors are turning to London's tech talent. My export programme is opening doors for forward thinking firms like Digital Shadows to explore trade opportunities in the US and to expand their networks.
"I want to encourage even more of London's companies to benefit from exporting to this dynamic market, building on the strong existing ties with the UK."
Alastair Paterson, CEO of Digital Shadows, said: "Our investors bring a wealth of expertise that will be invaluable to Digital Shadows as we commence the next stage of our growth plan. It was vital that we found the right fit in terms of culture, contacts and experience.
"We feel we have assembled some of the very best in terms of technology and investment expertise globally and we can't wait to grow the business with them starting with the largest market in the world for cyber security services - the US."