SCI Semiconductor has secured £2.5 million in fresh funding to advance development of what it claims will be the world’s first commercially viable “memory safe” computer chip. Mercia Ventures led the investment round through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, and UK and Silicon Valley-based angel investors participated.
The Sheffield-based firm is tackling memory safety, a longstanding vulnerability in legacy codebases such as those used in Microsoft Windows and industrial systems. Around 70% of cyberattacks exploit memory-related flaws. SCI’s technology aims to address this by embedding compartmentalised memory access control into hardware, offering an alternative to constant software patching.
Key early adopters include Google Research. SCI plans to double its engineering headcount to 40 and establish a permanent base in Sheffield. Founded in 2022 by Haydn Povey and Krishna Anne, the company has also received over £1 million in UK government R&D grants and draws on research from the University of Cambridge.
The chip, designed to work with open-source software and dev tools, positions SCI to capitalise on the growing demand for cybersecurity solutions embedded at the silicon level, particularly in defence, critical infrastructure, and industrial IoT.
This round signals growing investor appetite for UK-based deep tech firms addressing global security threats through hardware innovation.
